The Marauders' Legacy COMPLETE
by FullMoonDreams
Summary: What would happen if the Marauders decided to leave portraits of themselves at Hogwarts? A teacher's worst nightmare and a prankster's delight...but have they really thought this one through? RemusSirius Slash. Loose sequel to The Oracle of Gryffindor.
1. Chapter 1

The Marauder Legacy 

Pairing: Remus/Sirius

Warnings: Slash, a bit of bad language

Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognise. J K Rowling retains all copyright.

Summary:What would happen if the Marauders decided to leave portraits of themselves at Hogwarts? A teacher's worst nightmare and a prankster's delight...but have they really thought this one through?

Author Notes: This is a loose sequel to The Oracle of Gryffindor but does stand alone as well. Will be cross posted at my LJ (fullmoon underscore dreams) and maybe at blacklupin dot org too. This one probably won't be that long, but a couple of people have been asking about it, so I figured I should at least post the first chapter (since it has been on my hard drive for a month or more) or I may never get around to it.

**Chapter 1**

"Hey, Prongs! You awake?" Sirius Black stuck his head out from the bed curtains and called across the Gryffindor boys' dormitory in a far from hushed whisper.

James 'Prongs' Potter merely gave a grunt before turning over in his sleep.

Sirius frowned and looked about for his wand. He swore under his breath, when he realised it was still on his own bedside table, across the other side of the room. Since he was too warm and too lazy to get out of bed and get his wand, he grabbed the nearest thing to hand, which happened to be one of Remus's slippers, and threw it at James.

"What the hell?" James sleepily muttered as he sat up, looked at the missile that had awoken him, then glared at the git who had dared to wake him at the unacceptable hour of half past three in the morning.

"You awake?" Sirius asked again.

"I am now, you bloody git!" James replied. "What do you want that can't wait until morning?"

"I need your help," Sirius replied.

"At half past three?"

"No, not right now. Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's Saturday," James pointed out. "Nothing can be that bloody urgent it can't wait until morning."

"I sleep in on Saturdays," Sirius reminded him.

James gave him a look that told him that there was no possibility of that happening on this particular Saturday, and that Mr Sirius Black was in for a very rude awakening of his own.

"Go to sleep Padfoot," James muttered and he lay back down again, determined to get a few more hours of sleep.

"Prongs," Sirius whined. "I need your help with number twenty four."

James groaned and cast his mind back over the previous week's homework assignments. The number twenty four wasn't ringing any bells since most of the homework had been of the essay variety and the only one with questions was Astronomy and that had only twenty.

"Prongs!" Sirius hissed. "You've got to help us."

"Us?" James asked. "Who's us?"

"Me and Moony, of course," Sirius replied. "We're having trouble with number twenty four."

"What _are_ you blathering on about?" James asked with a heartfelt sigh. He knew he wasn't going to be getting back to sleep whilst Sirius was in this sort of a mood.

"Number twenty four on our list!"

"What flaming list?" James snapped. He was really too tired to have to put up with this sort of nonsense, especially in the middle of the night.

"_The_ List!" Sirius replied. "The list you had the visual version of."

James let loose a squeak that was rather reminiscent of sounds Wormtail might make whilst in his animagus form. "Are you kidding me?" James snarled as he waved Remus's slipper threateningly. "You're asking me for help in shagging your ruddy boyfriend?"

"I prefer to call it 'making love' actually," Sirius replied with a haughty sniff, unfortunately the effect was rather ruined by the leer that was gracing his face.

"I don't care what you bloody call it," James muttered. "Whatever problem you're having, I can promise I'm not helping out with it. Even if you don't know what's what or what goes where, I can guarantee that your boyfriend does. I've seen it for myself, in full, hideous detail!"

Sirius rolled his eyes at James's complaints; he had heard them all already after all. In fact, James was known to whine about the 'visions' he had had of Remus and Sirius in various states of undress, in various locations around the school, on a very regular basis, usually when he wanted something from Remus.

It had been a simple little prank, engineered by Remus, and executed by him and the surprisingly mischievous Lily Evans. Remus had intended for James to see a few set-up visions of the future and for him to believe himself to be a seer. What he hadn't accounted for was some apparent seer blood in his own family line, the result of which had caused his own subconscious thoughts to be seen by James.

That Remus's subconscious thoughts centred on his crush on Sirius had embarrassed Remus, thrilled the equally smitten Sirius, and – according to the reluctant seer – traumatised James for life.

Finally James finished his whining and Sirius explained that it wasn't that sort of help he wanted. "Number twenty four is Filch's office," he explained patiently. "But we can't seem to find a way to sneak in there without him or his ruddy cat catching us."

"Filch's office?" James echoed, and his shook his head to try to clear out the memory of the vision of two of his best friends up against the filing cabinets doing things to each other that he really had no wish to see.

"Tomorrow's a Hogsmeade weekend," Sirius reminded him. "Filch will be checking no one has brought back stuff they shouldn't from about half an hour after everyone goes down to the village. I need you and Peter to distract him and Mrs Norris whilst me and Remus…you know."

"Distract him how?" James asked.

"You're a marauder," Sirius huffed. "You'll think of something. Peter can distract Mrs Norris by having her chase him around the school."

"Mrs Norris doesn't really chase boys around the school," James pointed out.

"She will if he's a rat," Sirius replied with a smirk.

Under normal circumstances, James would not have considered such a suggestion. Sirius knew however that Peter was not in the good books of James Potter at the moment. He had fallen into some disfavour after he had been told how to trigger the visions and had taken a great deal of pleasure in making use of that knowledge. Sirius knew that James was dying for a little payback for that, and he could see that his suggestion was being given all due consideration.

"If I agree, will you shut up and let me go back to sleep?" James asked with a sigh of resignation.

Sirius sniffed with mock tearfulness. "You don't like my company?"

"Not at stupid o'clock in the morning, no," James replied and he threw Remus's slipper back at Sirius with a force that he normally reserved for the Quaffle.

Sirius dived to the side to avoid the slipper and slipped from the bed, pulling the bed curtains down with him. He landed with a loud thump and a lot of even louder swearing. The noise was enough to wake Peter from across the room and he sat up and looked at the mess.

"Padfoot, you and Moony had all Christmas break to get up to whatever kinky stuff you like in the dorm without me and Prongs being here. Either take your games elsewhere, or keep the damn noise down."

"We're not doing anything," Sirius muttered as he struggled out of the bed curtains and sat on the edge of the bed again. "We didn't even do anything earlier, if you must know. _That time of the month_." He added the last as a loud confidential whisper with a nod towards what he thought was the still sleeping Remus.

That he was mistaken in his assumption about Remus's sleeping status became clear when a forceful kick from the young werewolf sent him flying to the floor once more.

"You're awake?" Sirius remarked as he rubbed his elbow and stood up once more.

"Sirius, you're making more noise than a herd of stampeding hippogriffs. Did you expect me to sleep through the racket?"

"So, how awake are you?" Sirius asked as he climbed back onto the bed.

"Padfoot! Curtains!" screeched James, one hand over his eyes as he tried to dive back under his own covers once more.

Remus sat up and looked at the clock on his nightstand. It was quite clear that he wasn't going to be getting back to sleep any time soon. "I think I'm going to take a bath in the prefects' bathroom," he announced. "Can I borrow your cloak, James?"

James grunted something that might have been a yes and Remus pulled the invisibility cloak from his trunk.

He swung the cloak around his shoulders and turned to Sirius. "You coming?" he asked.

"Really?" Sirius asked. "You're letting me into the sacred sanctuary of the Hogwart's prefects?"

"It's number thirty on the list," Remus said. "You didn't think I'd plan on trying that one without you, did you?"

Sirius grinned and hurried over to the doorway. "See you later Prongs, Wormtail," he said as he joined Remus under the cloak.

"Later had better mean _morning_," James warned.

Sirius laughed and he and Remus slipped out of the dormitory.

-o-xXx-o-

"A week of detentions," Sirius complained as he threw himself onto one of the common room sofas. "You were supposed to be keeping Filch from coming back to his office, not coming back with him."

James, who had got his own week of detentions, was not sympathetic in the slightest. In fact, he was still feeling rather nauseous, having seen one of his 'visions' come true not more than an hour before.

"It wasn't Prongs's fault," Peter interrupted. "It was that portrait of Armand the Amorous."

"You'd think he would be an ally to those of us pursuing romantic pursuits," Sirius stated miserably.

"He probably would have been, if you hadn't set fire to that painting of his favourite inn back in four year."

"It was an accident!" Sirius yelled. "One little accident and he has to sneak around reporting us to Filch every time he sees us doing something we shouldn't."

"The portraits are all bound to the school," Remus pointed out. "Any of them could report us, if they wanted to."

"Only that nasty little git actually does," Sirius muttered. "I wish I could get my hands on him for just five minutes."

"He's a portrait," Remus reminded him with a laugh. "You can't cast spells on the portraits, they're magically protected."

"Pity no one thought to make them flameproof," Peter commented.

"Or Sirius-proof," Remus added with a chuckle.

Sirius grabbed at Remus and tugged him closer. "I'm glad you find this so funny. You won't be laughing when the entire school finds out you got caught having sex with another boy in Filch's office."

"I think the school might be more shocked at hearing about you," Remus commented. "I think most of the female population are convinced your constant pawing of me is some sort of elaborate prank, and they're waiting for the big reveal."

"Would that be the reveal that Filch and Prongs saw?" Peter snickered whilst James wailed again.

"Good Godric!" Remus exclaimed. "Prongs, get over it already."

James shot him a look of alarm and scrambled around for a way to quickly change the subject. "So, Remus, about the portraits…what else do you know about them?"

"Not much, only that most are donated to the school, but the ones in the headmaster's office magically appear on the death of a head teacher so that they can advise and guide the heads for as long as Hogwarts is standing."

"You got that straight out of Hogwart's: A History, didn't you?" James asked.

"Paraphrased slightly, but yeah, what of it?"

"I wonder…" James sat back in his seat and gazed up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"He's got that look again," Sirius whispered loudly into Remus's ear. "You've not been slipping him any more potions, have you?"

"That's not his 'I'm having a vision' look, that's his 'I'm thinking up mischief' look. Surely you know the difference by now?"

"Sadly, I only have eyes for you these days." Sirius fluttered his eyelashes at Remus in a manner that only produced a great deal of snickering from both Remus and Peter. "From now on I shall be blind to the looks of Prongs and shall be unable to tell what it is that he is trying to silently convey to me. I shall be unable to tell his Lily induced coma look from his slightly constipated look. I shall be immune to his can't wait for dinner look and shall forever wonder if…"

"Sirius, shut the hell up!" James interrupted. He looked about the common room with a thoughtful expression and on seeing it empty he turned to Remus with a grin. "Remus, how exactly do the magical portraits appear?"

"I don't know, only that it happens at the moment of death. Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking that with all the portraits around the school it might be interesting if _we_ left the school portraits of us. You know, to remember us by?"

"You think McGonagall will _ever_ forget us?" Sirius asked, aghast at the very idea.

"I was thinking more of the students learning from us," James explained. "We can help the pranksters for generations to come, instead of shushing those who wander the corridors at night or worse, tattling on us to Filch and the professors."

"You think the teachers would like us hanging around after we've left?" Remus asked. "I imagine that they're already planning a party to celebrate after we've gone."

"But is it possible?" James asked. "Portraits of the marauders would be perfect. The ultimate prank on the teachers. Just when they thought they'd got rid of us, there we would be, back again to torment them."

James grinned round at the other three boys, none of whom looked particularly enthusiastic at the idea.

"I'm not sure I want to be a portrait," Remus said. "Most of them don't seem very happy."

"Most of them look bloody miserable," Peter agreed. "Take that old git near the staircase to the astronomy tower, he moans all the time when the classes go past him, waking him up. Well, what does he expect when he's near the astronomy tower? It's not like they can hold the classes in the morning."

"Some of them aren't too bad," Sirius commented. "There's a nice looking little witch over near the Charms classroom."

"There is?" Remus asked with a raise of an eyebrow and a suitable smirk.

"Not that I've noticed," Sirius hurriedly back-tracked. "No, not at all. Regulus happened to mention her a time or two."

"I thought you weren't speaking to him?" James asked.

"I'm not, it was a while ago, ages really. So long ago I can barely remember the conversation."

"But you _do_ remember that she's a looker?" Remus asked.

"Yes, er, I mean no, I mean I…oh bugger!" Sirius, realising he was digging himself further into the hole with every word he uttered, folded his arms across his chest and shut his mouth purposefully.

Remus chuckled and planted a soft kiss on the pursed lips. "I'm just teasing," he said. "You're right, she is a looker."

Sirius decided to put a stop to that line of conversation by kissing Remus again and again until the other boy had forgotten what it was they were even talking about.

Thankfully, or not, as the case may be, James was there to insist they prise themselves away from each other and to steer the conversation back towards the portraits and the idea he was now clinging to like a drowning man holding onto his life preserver.

"I'm not saying it would be impossible," Remus finally stated. "But the books that detail the spells on the school are in the restricted section, written in ancient scripts and languages, some of which have been forgotten, and – since you've probably forgotten – we've got NEWTs in less than six months. I'd rather spend my time studying for those than digging about in the library for a prank that wouldn't be carried out until years after we've left."

"Is the restricted section on our list?" Sirius asked. "We could kill two birds with one stone if it is?"

Remus gave him a droll look and sighed. How did he get himself talked into these things?

-o-xXx-o-

A/N: Comments are very much appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: There is a lot of explanation about how the prank will work in this chapter, so I hope you don't get bored with it.

Chapter 2

Remus pulled several promising looking books from the shelves of the restricted section and dropped them loudly on the table.

"Make a little more noise, why don't you?" James hissed. "We didn't sneak in here in the middle of the night only for you to wake up the rest of the school by making such a racket."

"Leave him alone, Prongs," Sirius told him. "You didn't have to join us in here."

"If I wasn't here there'd be no research being done at all," James pointed out. "You'd be all over each other, working your way down your stupid list."

"Too right!" Sirius exclaimed. "So, why don't you bugger off back to bed and let us get on with it."

James rolled his eyes and turned the page of the book he was reading.

"I promise we'll get some work done as well," Remus offered, once it was clear that James wasn't going back to the dormitory.

"Or…" Sirius began. "You could always stay and watch." He waggled his eyebrows as he shifted his chair closer to Remus and kissed him on the neck.

"I think I'll go and see how Wormtail's getting on with keeping Mrs Norris out of the way," James suddenly decided, bolting from the chair.

"Alone at last," Sirius whispered. "Now for some real snogging."

"Hmm," Remus replied distractedly. "I think this book might be the one that has the answers we want."

Sirius ran a hand along Remus's thigh as he continued to nuzzle his neck. "You want to know what I want?"

Remus looked up from the book, suitably distracted, and turned to Sirius. "You want to know what I want?" he whispered back as he took hold of Sirius's hand and guided it further up his leg.

Sirius whined as Remus twisted around and climbed onto his lap.

"How long do you think Prongs is going to be?" Sirius asked breathlessly. With Remus rubbing up against him he was actually quite impressed with himself for managing to form a coherent sentence at all.

Remus laughed loudly. "He's not coming back at all, he knows exactly what we're doing."

"Exactly?"

"He's already seen this in vivid detail," Remus reminded him.

"Has he seen this though?" Sirius replied with a grin.

Remus was about to ask 'what?' when Sirius pushed him back up and onto the table. Then he climbed on top of him and looked down at him hungrily.

"Maybe not quite like this," Remus admitted.

Sirius bent his head down to kiss him and Remus's arms wrapped around his back and pulled him down closer. "We're going to crease those books," he teased.

"Bugger the books," Remus replied.

Sirius snickered. "I'd rather bugger you," he said with a suggestive wink.

Remus's laugh was cut short by Sirius's lips on his own and he sighed as they kissed, long and slow and sweet.

Sirius pulled back and looked down at Remus, a slightly dazed look in his eyes. "I don't think I could ever grow tired of this."

Remus brushed Sirius's hair back from his eyes and smiled. "Me neither."

-o-xXx-o-

"So, the magic that causes the new portraits to appear is built into the first portrait that appeared?" Peter asked.

"That's right," Remus said. "But the spells that were used are either lost, or in one of the books that we can't translate."

"I guess this means no marauder portraits," James said with a sigh of disappointment. "I was kind of looking forward to exploring some of the paintings around the school."

Remus knew that he should keep quiet, knew that it would only lead to trouble, but he could not resist revealing the rest of the information that he had discovered in the far corner of the restricted section. It wasn't like Sirius wouldn't blurt it out anyway. "Actually…" he began.

"My boyfriend is a genius!" Sirius exclaimed. "Wait until he tells you this, it's brilliant!"

James gave him a look that one would normally give an over enthusiastic puppy who was currently bounding around on the furniture. "Carry on, Moony…what have you found out?"

"The portraits in the headmaster's office aren't magically protected," Remus said. "Apparently the rest of them are because of stray spells from students who don't know what they're doing. But the ones in Dumbledore's office can have spells cast on them because no one would ever think that anyone would be firing off incompetent spells in the headmaster's office."

"I'm not really seeing why this would help us," James replied after a moment of thought.

"Okay," Remus started again. "Look at it this way. We can't do what the original headmaster did because the spell's been lost, but what we can do is cast a spell on that original portrait so that it thinks we are all heads of the school. Then the spell that causes the rest of the portraits to appear will do the same for us."

"You mean to bamboozle the portrait into making ones of us when we die?" Peter asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to just have our pictures painted and then donate them to the school?"

"Magical portraits are hideously expensive," Remus pointed out. "It might be worth if it we could guarantee that our pictures would be allowed to remain in the school, but it's not very likely they would."

"But what's to stop the school getting rid of the magically made ones?" James asked. "They could just remove them from the wall or destroy them."

"Not if they can't find them."

"What do you mean?"

"According to the book I found, although the portraits appear immediately on death, some Heads have made preparations in advance by getting the background of the painting done with seating and decoration of their choice. In those cases the witch or wizard appears in that portrait first of all. Once they are there, and as long as the portrait remains in Hogwart's, they have the run of all the paintings in the school."

"And any of their other portraits," Sirius added.

"All we would have to do is make sure that our backgrounds are done before we leave school and then make sure that they are hidden in the castle."

"Very well hidden in the castle," Sirius amended. "We don't want them finding a way to get rid of us."

"Let me get this straight," James interrupted. "We have to find the very first portrait that appeared and trick it into thinking that we are all headmasters of the school."

"A powerful Confundus charm should do it," Remus speculated.

"Can you confund a portrait?" Peter asked. "It's not like it's a real person."

"Of course you can," Sirius replied. "The hard part will be painting the backgrounds of the pictures we want to have as our homes."

"Considering we're all pretty crap at anything artistic, I say we get them done professionally," James suggested. "I know a guy who might do them cheap for us."

"I'm not spending years in some crummy knock-off," Sirius muttered. "I want a nice luxurious bedchamber for my portrait. I'm not spending eternity sitting on some high-backed chair with no cushions."

"Eternity sounds like an awfully long time," Peter commented. "I'm not sure I want to be stuck in a painting forever."

"Me neither," Remus admitted.

"You're forgetting something," Sirius said with a smile at Remus. "We'd be together, surely that would make eternity bearable?"

Remus smiled and shook his head. "Of course it would."

"How would we get these paintings into the school?" Peter asked. "I don't want to be stuck in some pokey little thing."

"I think we should get the room of requirement to provide them," Remus suggested. "We just have to picture what we want and the room should provide them for us. We should be able to find a way to get the room to provide a hidden place for them to be kept away from being removed too."

"Can we get the room to provide something magical?" James asked.

"The paintings won't be magical until after we've appeared in them," Remus pointed out. "Until that point, they will just be regular paintings."

"What do you want in your painting?" Peter asked Remus curiously.

"A library," Remus replied immediately.

"Boring," James muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"But practical," Remus pointed out. "There are so many things that could go wrong with this prank, I want us to at least have a way of researching it after we're portraits."

"He'll be living in my portrait most of the time anyway," Sirius added. "He'll only be allowed to the library when I let him out of bed."

Remus chuckled. "What about you two? Any ideas?"

"I'd like an inn of my own," Peter decided after a few minutes of thought. "Plenty of food on the table, just like that one on the fifth floor, comfier chairs though, and better lighting. Maybe a more modern pub instead of the old fashioned ones that are already here."

"Great idea," Sirius enthusiastically cheered. "Your painting will be the new social hub of Hogwart's. What about you Prongs?"

"Maybe a Quidditch pitch, so we can get some of those famous players who are in the paintings in the school to play against each other."

Remus smirked slightly. "And you would be on one of those teams too, right?"

"Naturally," James replied with a grin.

Remus still had some reservations about the prank, but he couldn't resist the infectious enthusiasm of his friends.

-o-xXx-o-

"How are we going to stop the other portraits from telling Dumbledore what we've done?" Sirius asked. He was kneeling down outside of Dumbledore's office, painstakingly picking the lock with his penknife.

"We'll have to confund the lot of them," Remus explained. "We'll do the one on the oldest portrait then a more powerful one on the whole lot as soon as we're done."

"Hurry up, Padfoot," James complained.

"You think you can do this any faster, be my guest," Sirius muttered.

"Why not use a spell?" Peter suggested.

"Because I already tried that and it didn't work. You know what Dumbledore's like, as much security as possible, including muggle locks."

Another minute passed. James started tapping his foot impatiently and even Remus was starting to think they were wasting their time.

Finally, Sirius let out a small cry of triumph and the door swung open.

"About bloody time," James complained.

"Let's get this over with then," Peter said as he followed James into the office.

Remus smiled at Sirius who was looking rather disappointed in the lack of praise for his efforts. "Good work, Padfoot," he said, planting a quick kiss on his cheek as he went past.

Sirius, suitably mollified was the last to enter the room. "So, which is the oldest portrait in here?" he asked.

"The headmaster isn't here at the moment," an elderly looking witch announced from the right hand wall.

"Which is why we're here now," James answered with a grin.

The witch looked at him suspiciously and several of the other portraits perked up a little. "Intruders," one wizard stated. "Headmaster Dumbledore will hear about this."

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius drawled before turning back to Remus. "Which one do you think it is?"

Remus shrugged and began making his way around the edge of the room, peering at the names and dates that were engraved on many of the frames.

"This one doesn't have a date on," Peter commented from where he was searching the opposite side of the room.

"Nor this one," Remus replied. He turned to Sirius who was fiddling with one of the unusual trinkets adorning Dumbledore's desk. "A little help would be nice," he commented.

"I'm thinking," Sirius replied distractedly.

"Try looking," James snapped as he climbed up one of the bookcases to get a closer look at one of the higher portraits. "Hey, this is one of your relatives!"

"My great-great Grandfather Phineas?" Sirius asked.

"Were there any other Blacks who were head of Hogwart's?"

"No."

"Then, surprise surprise, I guess it must be that one."

"Impertinent young man," Phineas sneered. "Remove your hands from my frame this instant."

"Charming as ever," Sirius commented. "There's a painting of him at home too. Miserable old git."

Phineas turned to face Sirius and a look of recognition flashed across his face. "Sirius, isn't it?" he asked. "The Gryffindor."

Sirius glared at the way his ancestor said the word Gryffindor, as though it was the worst sort of insult imaginable.

"The biggest disappointment to the noble house of Black in years," Phineas continued. "One can only hope the poison ends with you, and doesn't carry on over to your children."

Sirius wandered over to the portrait and grinned up at him. "Oh, it'll stop with me all right. I won't be having children after all, us poufs find it rather difficult to father babies, you see."

Phineas sneered down at him. "Insolence," he snapped. "Leave this office at once, you have no business here."

"We're looking for the oldest portrait of a headmaster," James explained. "As soon as we've had a quick chat with him we'll be on our way."

Phineas glared at James. "I am quite sure that he has no wish to speak to you."

"It'll only take a minute, just tell us which one he is."

"I'll do nothing to assist you in your nefarious schemes."

James turned to look down at Remus. "Do you think he'd tell us if I confunded him?"

Remus shook his head. "We can't trust that he won't be too confused to get it right."

Phineas looked down at Remus with another sneer. "Filthy half-breed."

Several of the portraits gasped at that insult, but it was Sirius whose protests were the loudest of all. "Don't you speak that way about Remus!" he yelled.

"He 'the one', is he?" Phineas sneered.

"Too right!" Sirius replied. "Now, are you going to tell us which portrait we need, or do we have to torture it out of you?"

"Torture?" Phineas laughed loudly. "I'm a portrait you foolish youth. What can you possibly do to me?"

Sirius smirked. "James, go wait outside the office with Peter."

"Why?" James asked.

"You wouldn't?" Peter asked, even as he edged towards the door.

"Wouldn't what?" James, who was not as quick on the uptake as Peter, asked, not having moved from where he was hanging from the bookcase.

"For your own sanity, you might want to do as I say," Sirius suggested.

"What are you going to do?" James insisted, though he did climb down to the floor.

"Dumbledore's office," Sirius stated with a wide grin. "Unless you want to be even more traumatised than you already are…"

James didn't echo Peter's question. He knew very well that Sirius would do just what he threatened, and that was enough to spur him through the door at a rather rapid pace.

"So, Remus," Sirius asked conversationally. "Where do you think? On the desk or maybe on those cushions on the window seat?"

"We really don't have time for this," Remus pointed out. "We need to find the right portrait and get out of here as quick as we can."

"And dear old Phineas Black is going to tell us which one we want," Sirius replied. "Or else!"

"Or else what?" Phineas asked. "There's nothing you can do to make me reveal what you want to know."

"Want to bet on that?" Sirius asked as he started moving the things on the desk out of the way and climbed up to sit on the edge of it.

"Showing disrespect for the headmaster's belongings won't convince me to assist you," Phineas declared.

Sirius pushed his robes aside and reached for the zipper of his trousers. "Remus, you want to cross another location off our list?"

"This isn't on the list," Remus replied.

"It's on my list," Sirius declared as he pulled down the zipper.

Several of the witches and wizards around the room gasped at his audacity, but Remus merely rolled his eyes.

Sirius reached inside his trousers with one hand, whilst beckoning Remus with the other.

"Did I ever tell you that you're a total exhibitionist?" Remus asked as he approached the desk.

Sirius smirked and turned to Phineas. "You going to tell us which one we need?" he asked. "Or do you want to see how great my boyfriend is at giving a blow job instead?"

Phineas looked from Sirius to Remus and back again several times before he spoke again. "He won't do it," he finally replied. "You might be vulgar and depraved enough to put on such a display in here, but he won't. The disgusting little half-breed doesn't have it in him."

"Disgusting little half-breed," Remus muttered under his breath. "You'd think he'd be a bit more imaginative with his insults after all these years."

"Remus?" Sirius whispered so that only Remus could hear him. "You don't have to do this, you know, not if you don't want to."

Remus turned to Sirius with a predatory gleam in his eyes. "Oh, I want," he said as he pushed Sirius back on the table and proceeded give Phineas Black the performance of his life.

Several of the portraits in the room seemed to be shocked speechless, although a few of them were chuckling. One particularly elderly witch even wolf-whistled them and cheered them on.

None of the portraits however were as thoroughly appalled as Phineas Black who was directing them to the oldest portrait before Sirius had even recovered enough to do up his trousers.

"You can come in now," Remus called through the door to James and Peter.

"That didn't take long," James commented with a smirk at Sirius who may or may not have been embarrassed by the comment. His face was still flushed from his orgasm, so it was difficult to tell.

"Which one is it?" Peter asked, reminding them all why they were there.

The four boys were soon crowded round the oldest portrait. It was faded and dirty and it appeared that the wizard inhabiting it had managed to sleep through the earlier events entirely.

"Shouldn't be too difficult to trick him," James commented as he poked the painting with his wand.

Remus nodded and pulled his notes out of his robes. "Are we really sure we want to do this?" he asked.

"Marauders forever!" Peter declared. The others nodded and Remus turned to the portrait to cast the spell.

Once the spells were cast the four boys slipped from the office and returned to Gryffindor Tower.

"How do we know if it worked?" James asked.

"There's no way of telling," Remus replied. "We'll only find out after we die."

Peter looked around the group. "So, anyone want to volunteer to test it?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"What the…?" James Potter had a confused expression on his face as he looked around him. It was the sort of face someone might have portrayed when they stood up to fight the most evil dark wizard the world had ever known, only to realise they had left their wand on the living room sofa. In fact that was precisely what James Potter had done and he was now standing in the middle of a field wondering what the hell had happened.

Lying on the grass nearby was his wand, almost as if he had left it there a moment before, just ready to be picked up again. Close by it was a broomstick, not his own broom, but one that he had salivated over back when he was at school. It had been the broom that everyone wanted, and one of the few things his parents had denied him…just because he'd had a new broom only a month before. But there it was, waiting for him.

He looked around him and realised that he was standing in the middle of a Quidditch pitch, and not just any Quidditch pitch, one that he had imagined standing in when he was back at school. One that he had imagined into a painting in the Room of Requirement.

He turned round and saw that behind him there was a large frame, stretching from the ground to just above his head and spanning the width of his outstretched arms. Through the frame he could see the room of requirement, just as he remembered it.

"I'm dead?" James said. "Well, that sucks!"

Slowly the memories of what had happened came back to him, not in a flood as one might expect, but almost like one remembers a dream.

It was a full ten minutes before he remembered Lily and Harry and he wondered what had happened to them. For the first time he wondered about the sense of the spell they had cast. It was all right for Remus and Sirius, they had each other to spend eternity with, but Lily was either still alive or truly dead, and either way she was well and truly out of his reach.

"It wasn't Remus," James said with a sigh. He frowned and glared at the painting of the inn on the other side of the room. "Just wait until that little rat shows up here," he growled. "He'll get one of my antlers right up his arse."

That thought brought to mind that James actually had no idea whether he could transform in the painting or not, but a quick test proved that he could.

James sat down on the grass near the edge of his painting and looked carefully into the room that they had designed to house their portraits.

On the opposite wall he could see the inn that Peter had chosen and Sirius's bedchamber – he was sure the git had set it up like that on purpose. He couldn't see Remus's library, but he recalled that it was to his right on the same wall his own painting was mounted on.

The room itself was brightly lit with several large beanbag type cushions on the floors, perfectly situated for any visitors they chose to allow into their hidden sanctuary – and only the most worthy of pranksters would be allowed within.

There was also a large trunk with a supply of unused pranking materials hidden inside. There wasn't much because they had used up most of their supplies, but there were a few things that they had just not had the time to set off. Remus had also left a duplicate Marauders' Map in the trunk, with instructions for how to update it if the school had changed substantially by the time they passed it on to someone.

Everything was ready, but James couldn't help but feel that he should not have been there quite so soon.

On the bright side, he wouldn't be alone for long. He knew that Sirius would be tracking down Peter right now and it wouldn't be too long before a second painting was occupied.

"Any minute now," James muttered, watching the inn intently. "Any minute."

James waited…and waited…and waited.

Soon it became clear that Peter Pettigrew wasn't appearing any time soon.

"He'll have gone to grovel his apologies to Remus," James suddenly stated, for the first time worrying that talking to himself was not a good sign. "Instead of tracking down the little traitor and avenging my murder, he's probably off somewhere getting laid by his sex-mad werewolf boyfriend."

James had worked himself up into a fine temper and to make the first day of his afterlife complete it started to rain.

"Rain? In a painting?" James swore and ran for the wooden bleachers, ducking underneath them as the sky turned black and the rain poured down.

An hour later, James realised that he wasn't really thinking properly. Of course his own painting was outside, but the other three were all rooms within buildings. All he had to do was go into Remus's painting next door and wait for the rain to stop. He stepped out from under the bleachers and looked towards what he remembered to be the edge of the painting.

"So, how does this work?" he asked himself as he walked towards the edge. Did you just step through into the next painting? Or did it require a spell to be cast as well? That possibility was something that had occurred to them before they had conjured up their paintings, and it was for that precise reason that they had each made sure to include their wands in the pictures. But where was the next painting?

James looked around but could see nothing that looked like a doorway or portal to another painting.

"Surely it can't be that hard to find?" James muttered.

Eventually he decided that just walking in the general direction of Remus's painting should produce some results, and hopefully he should arrive in it without too much effort.

James walked…and walked…and walked…and found himself right back where he had started.

"I did not just walk in a circle." James glared out into the room for a second or two, then he tried walking in the opposite direction, with exactly the same result.

Clearly something had gone wrong with the spell, and he had no idea how to fix it. If there was an answer, he was sure he would find it in Remus's library, but how could he get there?

James pointed his wand in the right direction and tried 'accio books' but nothing came flying towards him. He tried 'accio broom' and the broomstick flew from the grass and into his waiting hand. It seemed that spells only worked within his own painting and he was very limited on what he could do.

Suddenly an eternity living on a Quidditch pitch didn't seem like such a great idea. He looked out of the frame once more and cast a longing glance at Sirius's bedchamber.

"Never thought I'd live to see the day when I'd want to climb into Padfoot's bed," James commented to himself. "Oh, wait a minute…I didn't live to see it, did I?"

-o-xXx-o-

The days blended together and still there was no sign of any of the other Marauders joining him. James spent his time alternating between honing his Quidditch skills and testing the limitations of what he could do in the confines of the painting.

He soon found out that magic worked within the painting, but no further. Although he could see into the Room of Requirement he couldn't summon anything from there to himself.

Something that took much longer for him to realise was that he could control the weather in his painting…or at least he could control it for as long as he could control his emotions. Anger produced lightning and storms as he had experienced during his first days in the painting. Calmer thoughts and remembering happier times brought out the sunshine. Worry made the day overcast, but seldom produced rain. It took James a long time to realise this, and even longer to control it.

Days stretched into weeks, weeks into months and months into years.

James however, had no way of knowing how much time had passed. It seemed like years, but in his painting of perpetual daylight he had no way of knowing for sure.

He wondered if his friends had found a way of stopping the spell from working. Perhaps Sirius had decided to try to find a way to stop Peter from joining them, and in doing so had prevented himself and Remus from appearing in their own paintings. But surely if that was the case they would have come to see him in his own painting to let him know?

James had no idea what had happened, and although he was the only Marauder with a painting that wasn't confined to a single room, he had never felt so trapped in his life.

Then, one day - or night, it was impossible to tell - there came sounds from within the Room of Requirement.

James hurried to the frame, curious to know who could have found their way into the room. They had assumed that only someone who knew about this specific incarnation of the room would be able to get into it. Had they been wrong about that too?

James looked out into the room and saw a long-haired, dirty, dishevelled and quite frankly odious looking man, collapsing onto the beanbags.

"Oi!" James called out. "How did you get in here?"

"Give us a minute, Prongs!" the man asked, his voice sounding breathless, as though he had been running.

"Prongs?" James whispered. It was a name he hadn't heard in years, not even from his own lips. "Padfoot?"

"Who else?" Sirius replied with a snort. "Unless you've got your own little cult following from your life as a portrait?"

"Hardly," James said. "Nice of you to stop by and say hello. Though, if you don't mind my saying, you took your bloody time about it and you look like hell."

"So would you if you'd been on the run from prison for months," Sirius retorted.

"Prison?" James asked, chuckling slightly. "What did you do? Get caught shagging Moony somewhere public at last?"

Sirius sat up at that and stared at James with a confused expression on his face. "You didn't bother to find out what had happened after you kicked the bucket?"

"Not really had the chance to," James replied, explaining how he was trapped within the painting and had had no contact with anyone at all.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at his battered shoes. "Guess I should explain to you what happened," he offered, although not particularly enthusiastically. By the time he had finished, James knew why.

"So, Peter's running around the school as a rat?" James asked.

"Yeah, I need to try to find him and explain to Harry what happened and…What?"

"I didn't say anything."

"You gave me a look," Sirius accused.

"I was just thinking."

"Thinking what?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, no you don't. Come on, out with it!"

"Well, I was just thinking that if you're going to go see my son, you might want to tidy yourself up a bit first."

Sirius looked down at his clothes sheepishly and rubbed his bristly jaw.

"No offence, mate," James continued. "But you look like crap."

"Maybe I can get the room to produce some more suitable clothes," Sirius mused.

"Maybe I should get the room to do it for you?" James suggested with a smirk, even though he could not do what he suggested. "I still remember some of those hideous outfits you wore as a teenager. You don't want to go traumatising your Godson, do you?"

"Traumatise him?" Sirius echoed. "Anyone would think I intended to go pay him a visit dressed in some kinky outfit I got from that shop in Soho."

"I still remember the day I flooed over to your place and you were wearing nothing but women's underwear," James pointed out. "That you think that is suitable clothing to wear around the flat gives me no hope that you'll manage to dress yourself suitably now."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I told you at the time, it was a surprise for Remus."

"Sure it was," James replied with a smirk. "So, how is Moony anyway?"

"Don't know."

"What do you mean? When was the last time you saw him?"

"To speak to?"

"Of course to speak to."

"That night Lily cooked dinner for us all."

"What?"

"That night Lily cooked for all of us. That was the last time I saw him. I stormed out after that fight we had and had moved all my stuff out of the flat before he came home. Not seen him since."

James rubbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "You're telling me that you haven't spoken to him since then?"

"That's right."

"You haven't apologised to him for what you said…not to mention the stuff you didn't say, but thought anyway."

"I've not seen him at all. He's probably found another bloke by now anyway. Everyone thinks I'm a murderer, including Remus."

"Padfoot?" James waited for Sirius to look at him directly before he continued. "You're a flaming imbecile."

"What?"

"You heard me. You doubt Moony, who you claimed to love, and when you find out the truth you don't even go and apologise to him."

"Thought you'd want me to track down the little rat first, take care of business and then go see my ex."

James flushed as he recalled his thoughts about Sirius having done the exact opposite. "Well, yeah, but not if you were going to take more than a decade about it."

"He's teaching here at Hogwart's," Sirius told him. "I saw him in the distance once."

"Moony's here?" James asked.

"Yeah."

"And he's not been to visit me?"

"Maybe you were asleep?"

James snorted with derision and shook his head. "Stuck in the same painting for twelve years and my best mate stuck in prison. What are the odds?"

Sirius chuckled. "You mind if I get some sleep before I go back on the run?"

"Nah, you look like you need it."

"Do you get tired?" Sirius asked as he stretched out on the beanbags.

"No, nor hungry," James replied. "Just bored."

"Moony will fix it," Sirius told him between wide yawns. "You'll have the run of the school soon."

James replied that he hoped so, but Sirius was already fast asleep.

-o-xXx-o-

James didn't know what had happened, but Sirius didn't come back to visit him again, and neither did Remus. This time he hoped that they were curled up in bed together, and that nothing else bad had happened, but an uneasy feeling had settled in his gut and the overcast sky was a constant presence.

Months went by and eventually the door opened once more.

"Padfoot?" James asked, flying down to the ground to greet the visitor.

"Sorry," Remus replied. "It's just me."

"Moony!" James exclaimed. "It's good to see you again. Why haven't you visited before? Padfoot told me you were teaching here. What's it like? What have you been doing for the past twelve years? Are you and Sirius back together? Has he apologised yet?"

"Whoa," Remus interrupted with a chuckle. "One question at a time."

James laughed and settled down on the grass. "I'm all ears."

"Oh, they're not that bad," Remus replied. "The messy hair almost covers them."

"Git!"

Remus laughed and sat down on one of the beanbags, not realising that it was the same one Sirius had sat on during his own visit. "Why haven't I been here before? I kept expecting to see you or Peter in one of the paintings around the school. I was dreading it. I wanted to come here and get it over with, but I didn't know whether I'd be welcome here."

"What? Why?"

"I know that Sirius thought I was the traitor," Remus explained. "He never said it outright, but he didn't have to. After that night, I thought he was the traitor. But I didn't know if you and Peter thought I was in it with him. I didn't know you were on your own here. I thought Peter was with you."

"But now you know the truth?"

"Yes. Sirius caught up with Peter last night and I caught up with both of them."

"So, Sirius has cleared his name?"

"Not exactly, Peter got away again. I know the truth now, as does your son and his friends too, but he's still an escaped convict. Dumbledore's doing his best to sort things out – I think he believes us too – but without Peter it is merely the words of three teenagers and an unemployed werewolf."

"Unemployed?"

"Word of my condition got out this morning. I've handed in my notice." Remus shrugged as though it was of little consequence. "It was good while it lasted, and I enjoyed getting to know Harry. His patronus is a stag, you know?"

"Really?" James grinned widely.

"Yeah. Thought you'd like that."

"So, you broke the curse of the Defence post then?"

"No, what makes you think that?"

"When Sirius visited he said it was Harry's third year and you were teaching then. If he's conjuring a patronus he can't be just thirteen."

"Can't he?"

"He can produce a fully formed patronus at thirteen?" James was astounded and if he hadn't already been sitting down, he would certainly have fallen.

"He's like his Dad, very talented. Now, what about the rest of your questions? What have I been doing for the last twelve years? Surviving. Are Sirius and I back together? We've not really had a chance to talk yet. Has he apologised? Have you ever heard Padfoot apologise for anything?"

"Yes. Once."

"Those were extreme circumstances," Remus pointed out.

"So was believing you to be a traitor," James countered.

Remus was quiet for a long time. "He doesn't have to apologise," he finally said. "I don't need to hear the words; I know how sorry he is."

"Merlin, you're still as sappy as ever," James muttered. "So, you're leaving Hogwart's?"

"In about an hour."

"So, you won't be coming to visit me again?"

"I doubt it."

"Don't suppose you have any ideas about why I can't get out of my painting?" James asked.

"Not really," Remus admitted. "I didn't even realise you were trapped in here until Sirius told me after he was captured again."

"Wait a minute! He's been captured again? I thought you said he was still on the run?"

"He is. Harry broke him out and he flew off on Buckbeak."

"Buckbeak?"

"One of Hagrid's pets," Remus explained, filling a rather confused James in on the events of the night before.

Eventually though, Remus had to leave, although he promised that if he discovered the reason why James was trapped in a single painting, he would return immediately.

James sat back on the grass and settled down to wait once more.

-o-xXx-o-

Time passed by and James grew more and more frustrated with his lonely existence. What was the fun of being a portrait in the school if he was stuck in the same painting and unable to interact with anyone?

He was having a particularly long moan to himself when something caught his attention in the Room of Requirement.

Thinking it was Sirius or Remus returning to visit him, he rushed to his frame, eager for conversation with someone other than himself.

However, this time there was no light from the doorway, only a strange looking mist covering Sirius's painting.

"What the hell?" James muttered, peering as closely as he could in order to see what was happening.

Slowly the mist cleared and Sirius appeared in his frame.

"Padfoot!" James called, waving wildly.

Sirius turned around and walked to the edge of his own frame.

"Bloody hell!" James swore.

"What?" Sirius asked, jumping back slightly at James's exclamation.

"You're young again," James replied. "You look like you did back in seventh year."

"I do?" Sirius rushed to the wardrobe and pulled open the door, revealing a full length mirror. "Wow, I look good!"

"Conceited much?" James teased. "Why didn't I get to be young again?"

Sirius turned back to James, looking at him closely. "Actually, I think you are. I never noticed before, probably because there wasn't much of a difference, only a few years. But with me it's…" He turned back to the mirror and continued preening.

"Er…Padfoot?"

Sirius didn't turn round. "Hmm?"

"I hate to tear you away from ogling yourself, but what happened to you?"

"I died," Sirius replied, grabbing a brush from the bedside table and fixing his hair.

James swore under his breath. "I gathered that much. How?"

"Went down fighting of course. Bellatrix, you remember her? Total psycho! I fell through the veil in the Department of Mysteries while duelling her."

"Well, what did you do a stupid thing like that for?" James asked. "Wait a minute? Was Remus there?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"You were checking out his arse, weren't you?"

"In the middle of a duel? What do you take me for?"

"A besotted fool."

Sirius laughed and stretched out on his bed so that he was facing James. "He forgave me, you know?"

"Doesn't he always?" James said.

"My poor Moony," Sirius sighed. "How's he going to carry on without me?"

"He managed it for twelve years."

"Don't remind me. He's going to be distraught."

"I'm sure he'll be fine. He knows he'll see you again."

"You don't think he'll commit suicide do you?"

"Moony?" James shook his head. "Don't dramatise things. He'll be fine and he'll turn up here one day, years and years from now."

"Years?" Sirius whispered. "I don't want to wait years for him. What if he finds another bloke between now and then?"

"Did he when you were in prison?"

"I didn't ask."

"Why not?"

"I prefer to think of him pining over me than shagging someone else."

"Padfoot, did anyone ever tell you that you can be a bit selfish?"

Sirius huffed and sighed again. "He'll be here in about a week, just you wait and see."

James rolled his eyes and stretched out on the grass. A part of him hoped that Remus did appear soon, because Sirius was going to drive him mad if he didn't.

-o-xXx-o-

Once Sirius had accepted the truth, that Remus wasn't going to appear almost immediately, he began to fill James in on everything that had happened. Eventually, they turned to the pleasant topic of just what they were going to do to Peter when he turned up, a discussion that lasted several months.

They were busy contemplating how hard it would be to disembowel him with the few belongings they had thought to put into their paintings when the rat in question appeared.

Like the others, he appeared to be eighteen years old, but the expression on his face was that of someone who was much older.

He looked at James in terror, waiting for him and Sirius to rush into his frame and attack him.

Unlike them, Peter of course had no idea that he was trapped in the single painting.

"You think we should get him now, or wait until he's asleep?" Sirius asked conversationally.

"I don't know," James replied seriously. "I don't know which would be more satisfying. Perhaps we should let him stew a while."

Sirius grinned evilly, not that Peter could see him.

James smirked back at him. Now they could have some fun.

-o-xXx-o-

The tormenting of Peter Pettigrew soon got rather tiresome, especially when the treacherous little rat figured out that they couldn't touch him. His response was to begin his own slow tormenting of Sirius.

"No sign of Moony then?" he asked.

"Don't call him that," Sirius called back. "You've no right to use that name."

"Can't say I'm surprised he's not here. He's been very busy recently."

"Fighting Death Eaters like you."

"And other things."

"He'll be here soon, then he'll use that wonderful library of his to figure out a way for us to get to you."

"I hear that your cousin is about to become a grandmother," Peter commented idly.

Sirius ignored him.

"Young Tonks, you remember her?" He didn't wait for a reply. "Going to give birth any day now, from what I heard. Might already have done."

"I'm sure that Moony will tell us all the news when he gets here," Sirius declared. "Don't feel you have to tell us anything, or even speak!"

"Oh, but I want to tell you," Peter replied in mock sweetness. "So, were you and Moony getting along all right before your untimely demise?"

"I told you before, don't call him that!" Sirius yelled. "You've no right to use that name any more."

"Did I hit a nerve?" Peter asked. "Were things not too good between you at the end?"

"Things were bloody great for us! Not that it's got anything to do with you."

"So, you were satisfying him then? You know, in bed?"

"I don't have to listen to this crap," Sirius muttered. James watched as he pulled his bed curtains closed and he didn't need to see him to tell that he had used his wand to cast a spell to shut out the sounds of Peter's snide remarks.

James only wished that he could do the same.

-o-xXx-o-

The wait for Remus to arrive turned out to be the shortest of all, and Sirius watched as a mist formed in the painting of the library, revealing Remus as it slowly evaporated.

"Moony!" he called, but Remus didn't seem to hear him.

Sirius watched as Remus ran out of his painting, right into James's and out the other side.

"What the hell?" he gasped. "How did he do that?"

"Look!" James exclaimed, pointing to his right.

Sirius leaned forward to see what James was pointing at, but could see nothing from the angle.

"It's like another frame," James said with excitement. "Only it leads to another painting instead."

Sirius looked to his own right and left and saw that he too had other frames on either side. The one on his left showed the way to Peter's inn, and although it was exceedingly tempting to run into that one and pummel the rat to pieces, Remus had just shot out of the other side of James's frame and didn't seem to be appearing in his own.

Ordinarily, Sirius would have been a little insulted at that, but he knew Remus well enough to realise that it meant that something important was happening in Hogwart's.

The painting to his right showed the way out of the Room of Requirement and Sirius raced through it, wondering which way Remus had gone.

James was right behind him as he tried to get his bearings. "Someone's been moving the paintings around since we were in school," he complained.

"I don't think so," James replied. "It's just weird seeing the school from this perspective."

"Oi!" an elderly wizard complained as the two young men pushed past him as they hurried through the various paintings.

"Sorry!" James called back, right before barrelling into a couple of witches who were out picking flowers in a painted meadow.

Sirius ran as fast as he could and finally caught up with Remus in a painting in the Entrance Hall. "Fuck!" he swore when he saw what had happened.

The battle was still raging and in the distance Sirius could see a horrifying familiar body lying on the floor. He reached for Remus's hand and squeezed it. "You're with me now," he whispered.

Remus squeezed Sirius's hand in response. Then he twisted their hands slightly and frowned down at then. "That's odd," he said.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"It's gone."

"Gone? What's gone?"

"My ring."

"You've never worn a ring," Sirius whispered. "I think you're still a bit confused from dying."

"No, it was right there." Remus turned back to the battle, cringing slightly when a stray spell got a little too close for comfort.

Sirius too turned back to the battle and soon spotted the familiar face of Nymphadora Tonks. "I knew the little rat was lying," he muttered.

"What's that?" James asked from behind them.

"See that young woman fighting Bellatrix?" Sirius explained. "That's Tonks, Andromeda's daughter. Peter said she was about to have a kid. Yeah, right. Looks like she's recently given birth, doesn't she? Lying little –"

Sirius felt his words die in his mouth as he watched Bellatrix murder the young woman, but his reaction was nothing compared to that of Remus.

"NO!" screamed Remus, tearing his hand from Sirius's grasp and pounding on the invisible barrier that separated them from the real world.

Sirius watched as Remus sank to his knees and let loose a single sob.

He knelt down beside him and pulled him into his arms. "Hey, it's all right. I'm okay. There's no need to be so upset for me. I know she was my cousin's daughter, but I didn't know her for that long and we weren't that close."

"It's not that," Remus whispered.

"Then what is it?" Sirius asked. "Did you see someone else you know out there?" He turned back to the room and tried to spot any familiar faces, realising belatedly that Remus would have taught many of the students who were fighting out there. "I'm sorry, Moony. I'm so sorry."

"You don't understand," Remus accused. "You don't understand who she was."

"She? You mean Tonks?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean? She was my cousin. Of course I knew her. She was a member of the Order and a great Auror. A good witch and a loyal friend."

"She was something else too," Remus said quietly.

"Yes?"

"My wife."

Sirius blinked a couple of times, sure that he'd misheard. "I'm sorry, what?"

-

A/N: Of course I will be explaining next chapter how they are now about to move around the school. I would not leave a plot hole like that there. There is an explanation. Also, I hope this chapter was not too depressing. I tried to keep it as light as possible, but that is easier said than done when you are killing off the marauders in it.

Oh, and I will reply to everyone's reviews. I just figured people would prefer an update whilst I am inspired rather than a reply. I'll reply to everyone by the end of the weekend though. In the meantime, thanks for all your kind comments.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Remus was looking at him like he was a dense child, causing Sirius to feel more than slightly irritated.

"My wife," Remus repeated, slowly enunciating each word.

"I thought I'd misheard you," Sirius replied. "Hoped I'd misheard you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Remus snapped.

"Just never thought you'd get married," Sirius said miserably. He ducked his head, transformed into Padfoot and took off at a run.

Remus turned to James with a frown. "What's with him?" he asked.

"You got married?" James asked instead.

"Why do you both sound so surprised?" Remus asked impatiently. "Did you think that no one out there would want to spend their life with an ugly old werewolf?"

"No, it's not that at all!"

"Isn't it?" Remus snarled. "Because it really seems like it is. Why else did Padfoot run off? And why do you look so stunned?"

"Er…I don't know," James replied sarcastically. "Maybe it's because you're gay!"

"Huh?"

"You. Are. Gay. You like kissing blokes. You like shagging blokes. You…"

James could see the exact moment that Remus remembered and his voice trailed off.

"Padfoot," Remus whispered to himself. "Me and Padfoot…we were…"

"Yeah, yeah, I so don't need to hear the details," James muttered. "You'd better go find him. I'm going to see if I can find out what's happening in the rest of the school."

Remus nodded and hurried in the direction he had watched Padfoot run in.

It took nearly an hour to find him. The occupants of the portraits in the castle were in as much disarray as the school itself and no one had noticed a large black dog running through the paintings. Finally, Remus discovered him hiding under the table in a picture of a deserted pub on the fourth floor.

"You going to transform back?" Remus asked as he sat down on the floor and leaned back against one of the table legs.

Padfoot shook his head and made no effort to move from his spot.

"I didn't mean you to find out quite like that," Remus said. "I had a whole speech planned out for how to break it to you gently. I didn't know my memory would be all screwy when I first got here."

Padfoot started to inch towards the edge of the table, coming to a stop when his head was near Remus's hand.

"I can't believe I forgot you. That I forgot us." He reached out to stroke Padfoot's fur. "I forgot the unforgettable Sirius Black."

Padfoot crawled the rest of the way out from under the table and transformed back into human form. "I forgot my parents were dead," Sirius offered. "I spent two days wondering whether they would attend my funeral or not; it was only when I mentioned it to James and he told me they were dead that I remembered."

"That book about the spell to become a portrait should have had warning labels on it," Remus muttered.

"Did you really marry Tonks?" Sirius whispered.

Remus nodded slowly.

Sirius looked out of the frame of the painting towards the blank stone wall opposite. "Oh."

"Did you want me to be sitting around moping over you for the rest of my life?" Remus asked teasingly. Sirius flushed but didn't reply. "You used to hate seeing me miserable," he pointed out.

"I know," Sirius replied with a sigh. "But I get so jealous at the thought of you being with someone else."

"It doesn't mean I love you any less."

"I know. When I was in Azkaban I hated the idea of you being alone, but I hated the idea of some other bloke touching you too. I worried that some other bloke would be too rough with you and hurt you."

Remus chuckled. "Do I have 'fragile' stamped across my forehead?" he asked.

Sirius grinned back. "I don't know about your forehead, but I'll bet you have 'property of Sirius Black' somewhere on your arse."

Remus punched him lightly on the arm. "Stop trying to change the subject."

"I can't help it. What were we talking about?"

"Your jealousy issues," Remus reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, those," Sirius muttered. "How many were there?"

"How many?"

"When I was in prison, how many other blokes…or women, I guess…how many were there? I know I never asked before, but I'd like to know. Please."

"Not many."

"Anyone I know?"

"No."

"Did you love any of them?"

Remus smiled ruefully. "Briefly."

"Couldn't they keep up with your pace?" Sirius teased, though to Remus it seemed a little forced.

Remus laughed in an effort to lighten the mood. "Only you ever managed to keep up with me, and you know it."

"And Tonks?"

Remus sighed. "We both know that no matter what I say it won't take away the hurt I've caused you."

"I'm sorry. I'm being a selfish git, aren't I?"

Remus reached over and took Sirius's hand in his own. "Come here," he said, tugging him closer.

Sirius let Remus pull him into his arms and hugged him tightly. "I missed you," he whispered into Remus's ear.

"I missed you too," Remus replied. "Every day."

Sirius pulled back a little to look him in the eyes. "Really?"

"Really."

"Even with your wife for company?"

"Even then," Remus replied. "I'm not going to pretend I didn't care for her…didn't love her even. Just know that if I ever had to choose between the two of you, it would be you every time. She knew that, and loved me enough to live with the ghost of your memory in our lives." Remus paused a moment or two. "Can you do the same?" he finally asked.

Sirius didn't hesitate, nodding quickly and leaning forward to kiss Remus, as he had longed to do every day since the moment he had fallen through the Veil.

Remus leaned into the kiss. He hadn't forgotten his wife and son, but he knew there would be time to grieve later. Right now he knew that Sirius had to be his first priority. The surprisingly insecure Sirius Black wanted – no, needed – to know that Remus loved him, and he knew he couldn't deny him.

-o-xXx-o-

"Well, what 'ave we 'ere?" an unfamiliar voice asked from somewhere above the table.

"Er…" Remus looked up at where a vaguely familiar looking wizard was glaring down at them.

"You look new," the wizard commented. "And just so yer know. I don't 'old with none of those carryings on in me pub."

Sirius sat up, banging his head on the table, and Remus crawled out from underneath both the table and Sirius.

"Sorry," Remus muttered as Sirius helped him to his feet. "Forget where we were for a minute there."

"S'right," the wizard muttered. "Yer might want to try the place down in the dungeons."

"Er…okay." Remus nodded and pulled Sirius out of the painting.

"Where are we going?" Sirius asked curiously. "The dungeons? I can't believe there's a gay pub down there and we didn't know about it."

"Back to the Room of Requirement," Remus replied. "I want to look some things up in that library."

"Like what?"

"Like why we're young again, why you were all trapped before I arrived, and a few other things."

"Like what?"

"Nothing we need to worry about too much," Remus replied. "Just stuff."

"You know saying that will only make me worry all the more, right?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "I want to know what'll happen on the full moon," he finally admitted. "I looked it up before, but the books didn't really say anything about werewolves. I'm really hoping that the library in my painting does."

"Shit!" Sirius swore. "I never thought about whether your Lycanthropy would carry over with you."

"I thought it wouldn't, or I'd have mentioned it before. Death kills the Lycanthropy; that's why any werewolf killed on the night of a full moon immediately turns back into a human. But I'd like to know for sure, especially since things haven't exactly gone according to plan so far."

"What if you do change?" Sirius asked. "Can paintings be infected or bitten or…?"

"It won't come to that," Remus interrupted. "I imagined a secret room at the back of one of the bookcases in my painting. I'll spend the full moon in there just in case."

They continued through the paintings until they reached the Room of Requirement. James and Peter were nowhere in sight.

"Glad you imagined more comfortable seating in your library," Sirius commented as he stretched out on a luxurious sofa with a contented sigh.

"I hated those wooden chairs in Pince's library as much as you did," Remus replied distractedly. He pulled several promising looking books from the shelves and deposited them on the coffee table.

It was a few hours later when James returned to the room and joined them. "He's gone," he said as he sat down in a chair.

"Peter?" Sirius asked. "He can't have gone far. We'll track him down eventually and then we'll beat the crap out of him."

James made a hissing noise and nodded meaningfully at Remus.

"What?" Sirius asked. "Remus won't stop us, not this time."

"He won't?" James sounded doubtful.

Remus looked up at James. "I'll even help you," he offered darkly. "He can't hide forever, even in his rat form."

James nodded. "I didn't mean Peter actually. I meant Voldemort. He's gone…for good. Harry beat him."

"You saw?" Sirius asked.

James nodded. "It's really over."

"There's something else, isn't there?" Remus asked.

James nodded and explained about Lily's sacrifice and the reason she had been given a chance to live.

"So, it's really over," Sirius said quietly. They sat silently for several minutes, the research forgotten. There wasn't really much else they could say.

-o-xXx-o-

"I think I've found something," James said. "This book talks about the preparations for portraits."

"And?" Sirius asked impatiently.

"Turns out that the head teachers who make their paintings in advance usually do so when they know their time is almost up. That's why they're all old and we're not."

"Not to mention, most of them were getting on a bit before they even got the job," Remus added.

James nodded and continued. "We made the paintings at eighteen and that's why are eighteen in them."

"Any ideas on why we were trapped?" Sirius asked. "I've got nothing."

James shook his head.

"Actually, I've been thinking about that," Remus said. "The spell that makes a portrait appear in the school has two parts. One to cause the person to appear in the painting, and one to bind the painting to the castle. I think it got stuck between the two."

"Why would it do that?" Sirius asked.

"It shouldn't have done. The only thing I can think of is that we mucked up the spell so that instead of seeing us as four different headmasters, the original portrait saw us as one collective headmaster. That way even though the rest of you were in your frames it wasn't able to bind you to the school until all four of us were here."

"So we should have confunded the painting four separate times?" James asked.

"That might have made a difference, but I can't say for sure. And this is only speculation."

"Your speculation is usually right on the mark though," Sirius pointed out. "What about the werewolf issue?"

"No idea, I'll make sure to go into the secret room just in case."

"I'll be there with you," Sirius told him.

Remus nodded and smiled at him. "I know."

"How are you going to tell when the moon is full?" James asked. "My painting is constant daytime."

"Sirius's window," Remus replied, pointing across the room to Sirius's painting. They couldn't see it from the other paintings, but the room contained a small window over the bedside table. "It shows day and night and the cycle of the moon."

"Is it real time, or fake portrait time?"

"It should be real time."

"Will a portrait moon make you change?"

"Don't know."

"Why not just stay in a different painting, like my daylight one?"

"Because if I do change because of the cycle of the moon in the real world, being in a different painting won't help."

"Can't you tell if the wolf is in you?" Sirius asked. "Can't you sense it or something?"

Remus shook his head. "It doesn't really work like that. I'll get some warning that I'm about to change if your window doesn't show real time though, so don't worry too much."

"So, we've been cooped in here long enough?" Sirius asked, unable to keep the hopefulness out of his voice.

Remus smirked and watched as Sirius eagerly eyed his own painting. "You know, I'm feeling a bit peckish," he said.

"Liar," Sirius accused. "We don't get hungry any more, not for food anyway."

Remus chuckled. "Come on then, you've waited patiently all day."

"I can't believe you made me wait instead of letting me take you to bed right away," Sirius muttered.

"I was just curious to know how long you would sit here in a library without dragging me over to your bedchamber," Remus teased.

Sirius growled and threw himself across the table, toppling Remus back across the sofa.

James groaned and stumbled over his own feet as he dove for his own portrait. "Should have known you'd be shagging in every portrait you could. Never mind that there's a perfectly good bed right over there."

Remus laughed, but the look in Sirius's eyes was familiar and his laughter soon died down. "Sirius, no!"

Sirius nodded eagerly. "We could start a new list," he said. "Top of the crows nest in that painting of the docks down near the Hufflepuff quarters. That meadow with the lake in the background."

James stopped at the frame leading to his own painting as Sirius continued to rattle off various paintings they had seen around the school.

"Sirius, you're insane," Remus muttered. "We'll get into so much trouble."

Sirius shook his head and grinned. "You're still thinking like a student. We're portraits; we can't be touched now. Where do you want to try first?"

"May I make a suggestion?" James asked cautiously.

"Sure," Sirius replied, looking at his friend over the back of the sofa.

James pointed towards Sirius's painting. "That bed, with the curtains closed and a nice strong silencing charm in place. I suggest you get Moony to do the spell too, you were always crap at them."

"I can do a perfectly good silencing charm actually," Sirius replied huffily. "I just choose not to bother when I know how much you secretly enjoy listening to us."

James made a strangled sort of sound, deep in his throat, as he fell backwards through the frame into his own painting.

"You shouldn't torment him so much," Remus scolded.

"Why not? I like teasing him almost as much as I like doing this." He leant down to kiss Remus softly on the lips.

They never made it to Sirius's painting.

-o-xXx-o-

"You know something?" Remus commented as he picked up his discarded clothes and frowned at the torn threads that marked where buttons used to be.

"Hmm?" Sirius replied as he looked for his trousers.

"We have a bed, even though we don't need sleep. But the one thing we really need, we don't seem to have."

"A shower, right?" Sirius guessed.

Remus nodded. "I don't remember seeing any in the paintings either."

"Cleaning charms it is then," Sirius said, retrieving his wand from down the side of the sofa.

Remus screwed up his nose. "I don't know about you, but I never feel quite as clean after using magic than I do after having a shower or bath."

"We could go and check out the pool in the mermaid's painting in the prefects' bathroom," Sirius suggested. "The water would have to be clean for that vain little floozy to even consider swimming in it."

Remus nodded in agreement. "Let's go check it out."

-o-xXx-o-

"That looks weird," Sirius said as he looked into the frame of the mermaid's painting and saw the water lapping against the invisible barrier.

"It looks cold," Remus added, gingerly poking at the water with a finger.

"Well, let's check it out," said Sirius, diving into the frame and paddling his way towards the rock. Remus joined him a moment later, thankful to find that the water was surprisingly warm.

"Who are you?" a silvery voice asked.

Remus looked up to see a familiar looking mermaid gazing down at them curiously.

"I know you," she continued, before either of them could speak. "You were a prefect, but that was years ago. How did you get here?"

Sirius smirked up at her. "A marauder never reveals his secrets," he told her.

The mermaid looked back down at him. "What's a marauder?"

Remus laughed. "So much for us being legends in the school."

Sirius splashed water at him. "Good job we're still here to make sure we will be then, isn't it?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Moony?" Sirius murmured as he traced patterns on Remus's bare chest with his index finger.

"Hmm?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, you know you can."

"Promise you won't get mad."

Remus stilled Sirius's hand with his own and raised it to his lips to plant a soft kiss in the palm. "I promise. Now, what is it?"

"You being a dad. Is that why you married Tonks? So that she could give you a baby? The one thing I couldn't give you…"

"No, the baby wasn't even planned. And I didn't exactly take the news that well either."

Sirius leaned up on his elbow. "What happened?"

Remus shrugged slightly. "I sort of panicked."

"You didn't?"

"Afraid so. Harry was the one who eventually talked some sense into me. Though don't tell Prongs, he might get the wrong idea and think his son gets it from him…and I really don't want him offering his so-called pearls of wisdom twenty four hours a day."

"You saying Prongs is a dunce?"

"I'm saying that Harry gets his common sense from his mother."

Sirius chuckled. "Do you think your son will come to Hogwart's?"

"His name is down for it."

"What is it?"

"What's what?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "His name, what is it?"

"Oh, Teddy, after Ted Tonks."

"She didn't want to name him after you?" Sirius sounded insulted on Remus's behalf and Remus laughed again.

"His middle name is Remus."

"Oh. Good." Sirius nodded seriously. "I should hope so too."

Remus turned onto his side and snuggled closer to Sirius.

"Moony?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think your son will be a marauder?"

Remus laughed. "If he takes after both of his parents, I imagine he'll be the most inept marauder ever to walk the halls of Hogwart's."

"Yeah, your…wife…was kind of clumsy, wasn't she?"

Remus knew how hard it had been for Sirius to say the word wife and he hugged him closer in gratitude for the effort he was making.

They kissed, safely out of sight behind the bed curtains, and Remus did his best to banish thoughts of Tonks from both of their minds.

"Oi! Are you two staying in there all year?"

Remus ignored the aggrieved voice of James Potter in favour of divesting Sirius of his boxer shorts.

"I've got a lead on Pettigrew!" James shouted.

Remus deliberately ignored him; Sirius was past the point of speech anyway and merely groaned loudly.

"He's hiding out with the other rats down in the painting of the dockyard," James continued.

Remus pulled back from Sirius with a sigh of frustration. "He's not going to shut up and go away, is he?"

Sirius shook his head, still not entirely capable of speech.

"We should go and find Pettigrew," Remus said.

Sirius nodded and struggled to sit up. He crawled to the end of the bed and pulled back the curtains.

They waited for James to screech about his poor offended eyes, but he was standing with his back to them so as not to see any bare flesh.

"We're decent now," Sirius lied.

James turned round, squeaked and spun round again. "Git!" he muttered.

Eventually they were ready to make their way to the painting of the dockyard and set out from the Room of Requirement, their mission clear.

"I can't believe it's taken nearly four months to find him," James said as they made their way through the various paintings.

"Four months?" Sirius asked. "That means that…"

Remus grinned widely. "It means that I'm no longer a werewolf. I didn't even know the full moon had passed, I didn't feel the usual aches and pains that warned of the transformation at all. I'm human again."

Sirius smiled and pulled Remus towards him for a kiss. "You always were," he whispered. "So, Prongs. You've really found Pettigrew?"

James nodded. "Yeah. Of course, it might have taken less time if you two could have got out of bed once in a while to help me search."

"I can't believe we've been in bed for four months?" Remus asked. "It doesn't feel like that long at all. Are you sure that's right."

"We don't need food any more," Sirius reminded him. "Nor sleep. We can spend eternity in bed."

James shot him a look of annoyance. "I thought the idea of the portraits was so that we could tutor young pranksters in the ways of the marauders," he pointed out. "Not so that we could spend eternity shagging non-stop."

"You're just annoyed because you aren't getting any," Sirius replied with a smirk that earned him a hearty smack from Remus.

"You could try being a bit more sensitive," he pointed out.

Sirius grumbled a little at the scolding, but promised not to make any more comments about Prongs's lack of action.

They continued on their way to the dockyard, eventually arriving there just as a group of students were passing by on their way to class.

"Where is he then?" Sirius asked, scanning the ground for the familiar rat. "Look for one with a toe missing."

"He doesn't have a toe missing," James said.

"He did, he ripped it off when he faked his death."

"But he still had all his digits at eighteen," Remus pointed out. "His animagus form is the same as his human one at that age."

"Then how did Prongs recognise him?"

"Good question," Remus replied, turning to Prongs for an answer.

"He's been rounding up the regular rats, turning himself into some form of leader for them," Prongs explained. "Their behaviour has become stranger under his influence, strange enough to give away his presence here."

"So, where is he now?" Remus asked.

"He'll be around somewhere," James replied, peering over a stack of crates near the edge of the dock.

"We should split up and search the whole painting," Sirius suggested. "Me and Moony will go take a look in the Crow's Nest."

James turned to glare at him. "I'll go check out the Crow's Nest. You check inside the buildings and Moony can search the rest of the ship."

Sirius looked sulky, but he did as he was told. He quietly promised Remus that they would return to the Crow's Nest later.

It was another fifteen minutes before they were all back at the dockside, still none the wiser as to where Peter Pettigrew was hiding.

It turned out that the one thing that Peter had enjoyed the most would turn out to be his downfall. When it came to pranks and mischief, the one thing that landed Peter in detention more than anything else was his lingering around to witness the chaos they had caused. Now, watching the other three marauders running around and searching for him was to have a similar effect.

Sirius was the first to spot Wormtail lurking near the end of the dock. He sat down next to Remus and leaned in as if to nuzzle his neck. "Don't look now, but I think I've spotted him."

"Padfoot, could you please stop pawing Moony," James warned. "There are a couple of wizards over there who look a bit annoyed with you."

Sirius ignored him and continued to whisper into Remus's ear. Remus followed his instructions to the letter, leaning backwards on the crate so that his head was hanging over the end whilst Sirius sucked on his neck.

"Are you a vampire now?" James asked impatiently. "I'm serious when I say that you really don't want to be doing that sort of thing here."

Remus kept his eyes open as Sirius continued to lick and suck at his neck, occasionally tugging at his earlobe. He looked across to where Sirius told him and saw a particularly smug looking rat looking at them with a very human expression on his animal face.

James was sounding increasingly panicked as Remus and Sirius continued to ignore him. "There are students looking in the painting," he squawked. "You might try thinking about their sensibilities. They look like first years, they're probably traumatised."

Remus looked towards the frame showing the outside world and saw that there were indeed several students looking in at them with curious expressions.

"Now!" Sirius whispered into his ear.

Remus didn't need any more prompting and he shoved Sirius off of him, flipping him over so that he landed right next to the hiding animagus. Sirius's reflexes were fast and he gripped the rat – perhaps more tightly than was necessary – in his hand. "Why, hello Pettigrew," he said conversationally. "Fancy seeing you here."

"You found him!" James exclaimed, hurrying across with an expression of fury on his face. "Let me at him!"

Remus grabbed James's arm in a firm grip and nodded towards the students still looking into the painting. "They don't know what he really is," he pointed out. "They might think we're torturing animals or something."

"I'll torture the little bastard!" James yelled, trying unsuccessfully to shake off Remus's hand.

"Not while he's a rat," Remus said, pulling out his wand and pointing it at the animal.

A moment later and the rat was gone, leaving an eighteen year old Peter Pettigrew in a headlock. "What do we do with him now?" Sirius asked as he struggled to maintain his hold.

"We kill him," James hissed.

"We can't," Remus said.

"Why not?"

"Because we're only paintings now, we can't be killed, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Then who's up for a bit of torture?"

Peter squeaked and renewed his efforts to escape. "Remus, you won't let them torture me, will you?"

Remus folded his arms across his chest. "Why is it he always thinks that I'm the one who's the soft touch? Do I give off the impression that I'm some sort of idiot or something?"

"No, 'course not," Sirius assured him. "You're just the nicest of us."

"Am I?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

Sirius and James exchanged a look. "Well," James muttered. "You didn't really like getting your hands dirty like the rest of us."

Remus nodded thoughtfully.

"Remus, please?" Peter begged.

Remus nodded one final time before speaking again. "Let him loose."

"What?" James spluttered. "You're not seriously thinking of letting him go, are you?"

"Turn him loose," Remus repeated, knowing that Sirius would eventually comply.

Sure enough, a moment later Sirius loosened his grip around Peter's neck enough for him to free himself.

Peter looked relieved as he rushed towards Remus. He looked like he was about to pull Remus into a giant bear hug, but he didn't quite make it. With reflexes that were faster than they had ever been in his life, Remus pulled back and let loose a swinging punch that laid Peter out cold.

"Bloody hell!" James swore. "Did I just hallucinate that?"

Sirius shook his head and grinned widely. "Damn, I love this bloke!"

Remus cradled his abused knuckles as he looked down at Peter. Sirius hurried across to him, taking his hand in his own and planting soft kisses on the knuckles. "No bruises," he said. "One advantage of being a portrait."

"Still hurt though," Remus replied.

"Good," James said. "Because if it wasn't possible to inflict pain, there would be no way of getting our revenge on him." He nodded to where Peter was still lying unconscious.

"What are we going to do with him?" Sirius asked, kicking Peter with the toe of his shoe.

"Don't know," Remus replied. "We can't just leave him here though."

"Uh oh," James muttered, nodding towards the frame. "Looks like our audience has grown."

Remus turned and saw that James was correct. Looking in at them was Professor McGonagall, who had apparently been summoned by one or more students.

"Professor McGonagall," Remus greeted her with a hesitant smile. "It's nice to see you again."

Professor McGonagall was speechless. She looked at the three young men, her head shaking slightly as she realised who she was looking at.

"Minnie!" Sirius declared. "Lovely to see you again."

A couple of the students snickered at the nickname. Professor McGonagall just looked even more stunned. Sirius had only ever called Professor McGonagall 'Minnie' to her face on one occasion, on their last day of school. It had provoked a similar stunned reaction.

Remus nudged Sirius in the ribs as he looked apologetically out at the Professor.

If there was one thing that could be said about Professor McGonagall, it was that she recovered from any surprises flung in her direction remarkably quickly. "My office, now," she barked, turning to sweep her way through the students.

"She missed us," Sirius said with glee. "She wants to be alone with us. Isn't that sweet?"

Remus gave Sirius a look.

"What about Pettigrew?" James asked.

Sirius grinned and pulled out his wand. He then proceeded to truss Peter up and levitate him ahead of the group as they made their way towards Professor McGonagall's office.

They stopped only once, for Sirius to declare loudly to the students who were following along side them that The Marauders were back.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Professor McGonagall's office hadn't changed much over the years. It was still as tidy and orderly as it had ever been.

The only difference now was that the Marauders were looking down into the room from a painting, instead of sitting in the seats opposite the Head of Gryffindor's desk.

"Only two seats there now," Sirius commented as he looked into the room.

Professor McGonagall looked back at him with a vaguely amused expression. "Not since your own school days have I felt the need to keep four chairs in here on a permanent basis," she told him. "Now, take a seat."

She pointed to the painting on the opposite wall, where there was a long bench in the middle of a park.

Peter was just beginning to come round and so the four of them made their way to the painting and dutifully sat down.

"On the bench, Mr Black," Professor McGonagall insisted, causing snickers from James as Sirius got off of Remus's lap and sat on the bench.

"Professor?" Remus asked, cautiously. "I know this must come as a bit of a surprise."

Professor McGonagall looked up at them, though still managed to be looking down on them, as she glared at one young man, then another. "Fighting in front of students, absolutely disgraceful. Mr Lupin, I'm surprised at you. You were a prefect and a professor of this school; you should have been setting an example. Instead I find students talking about two young men 'snogging on the docks' and when I come to investigate it, I find you're fighting."

"We weren't really snogging," Sirius interrupted. "I was whispering to Remus how to catch that bloody rat."

"Language, Mr Black!" McGonagall barked. "There is no excuse for displays of violence in front of the students. Many of them were here for the Battle last term, and the last thing they need is to see former students, brawling in the paintings. Mr Potter, as a former Head Boy you should also have been setting an example."

Remus leaned forward and looked past Sirius to see what James's reaction to this was. He wasn't that surprised to see that he didn't look anywhere near as guilty as he should have done, and not nearly as guilty as Remus was feeling. He hoped that none of the students who had been watching were children he had taught, though he was fairly sure he had recognised several of the faces peering in at them as the crowd had grown.

Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall was just getting into her stride as she dredged up several similar instances of bad behaviour on all their parts during their school days.

"Bloody good memory she has," Sirius whispered. "I'd forgotten that last one myself."

"I'm sure her animagus form should be an elephant and not a cat," James whispered back. "She's certainly got the memory of one."

Sirius snickered, earning himself another frown of Professor McGonagall and an elbow to the ribs from Remus.

"Clearly I can't give any of you a conventional detention," said Professor McGonagall, sounding thoroughly disappointed with the fact. "However, I think I can keep the four of you out of mischief until we can figure out how to deal with you in the long-term."

"Detention?" Sirius squawked. "But we're paintings, portraits. We're not students any more."

"That has not escaped my notice," Professor McGonagall assured him. "I assume you aren't going to tell me who it is that has managed to smuggle portraits of you into the school?"

Remus squirmed in his seat, whilst Sirius, if it was at all possible, was looking even more smug than before.

"Ah," Professor McGonagall suddenly murmured, clearly seeing something of the truth in the faces of the guilty parties. "You left your paintings here yourselves, didn't you? That must be why you're all appearing young again."

Remus, James and Sirius exchanged glances. Eventually, Remus shrugged and nodded to Professor McGonagall that she had guessed correctly.

"That would also mean that you must have cast some form of spell to make yourselves appear in the paintings after your…deaths."

Remus nodded again, but it seemed that Professor McGonagall didn't need confirmation, and was only piecing things together in her own mind.

"That makes things rather different," she mused as she looked up at them. "Very different indeed."

"Different how, Professor?" Remus asked.

Professor McGonagall gave them a smile that was truly worthy of any of the marauders at their most sneakiness. "You have found a way to bind yourselves to the school, in the same manner that the portraits of the former head teachers are, correct?"

Remus nodded cautiously.

"Then in that case you are bound to the school in the same way that they are. You are therefore bound to the current Headmaster, just as assuredly as the rest of the headmasters and headmistresses are."

"Oh, no," Remus groaned. "I knew this was a bad idea."

"Look on the bright side," James said from the other side of Sirius. "At least Sni- Snape isn't Headmaster any more."

"Oh no," Sirius gasped, leaping to his feet. "He doesn't have a portrait, does he? Professor McGonagall, please tell me he doesn't have a portrait!"

"Sit down!" Professor McGonagall barked impatiently. "This school boy grudge is long overdue for settling – and not by the means of a fistfight, Mr Black – however, Professor Snape was not Headmaster of the school at the time of his demise, therefore he does not have a portrait here as yet."

"Yet?" asked James.

"Yes, Mr Potter, yet. Now, back to the issue at hand here. You are bound to the Headmaster, and therefore you are bound to obey his orders. I may not be able to force you to do a form of detention, but I can assure you that he can."

Sirius was shaking his head mutely, his mouth silently forming the word no.

James was groaning in disappointment and Remus was just resigned to the fact that this was yet another aspect of the ultimate prank on Hogwart's that had gone wrong.

The only one who had not said a word was Peter, who was alternately nursing his jaw whilst giving Remus suspicious glances from the opposite end of the bench.

"You will report to the Headmaster's office immediately," Professor McGonagall told them. "I will meet you there shortly, and woe betide any of you that isn't there by the time I arrive."

"It's not like they can make us scrub out the cauldrons or anything," Sirius commented as they stood up and began to make their way to the Headmaster's office.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Peter muttered.

"Who asked you?" Sirius hissed, shoving him in the back for good measure.

"Just saying."

"Well don't," Sirius told him. "Or I'll set Moony on you again."

Peter looked at Remus nervously and quickened his pace a little.

"Come on," Remus said as he wrapped his arm around Sirius's waist. "We'd better not keep Professor McGonagall waiting. She might set our paintings alight if we annoy her too much."

"She'd need to find them first," Sirius smirked. "Besides, we could just hide out in another portrait if she did that. I'd miss our bed, but I'm all up for a roll in the heather instead."

"It doesn't work like that," Remus pointed out quietly. "No paintings equals no marauders in Hogwart's."

"We don't know that for sure."

"Do you really want to risk it?" Remus asked.

"Well, they won't find our paintings anyway, so it's purely academic."

"I don't know. Professor McGonagall looked really determined."

"She can be determined, it doesn't mean she's going to find them. They're as well hidden as they can ever be."

Remus nodded. "I guess."

"What about you, James?" Sirius called ahead of him. "You're awfully quiet. Are you worried that they're going to find a way to get rid of us?"

James shook his head. "Not really. Just something else McGonagall said that's got me thinking."

"What was that?" Remus asked.

"He's worried about Snivellus turning up here too," Sirius guessed. He and James hadn't been best friends for so long without him picking up on his concerns nearly as easily as he did Remus's.

"She said 'yet'," James reminded him.

"She's just winding us up," Sirius assured him. "Only head teachers and geniuses like ourselves get to stay here as portraits. He wasn't head of the school when he croaked, so he didn't get one."

"I guess," James agreed. "I just wish I knew for sure. It might be a bit awkward coming face to face with him after all this time."

Sirius wasn't overly bothered by the thought, but he made an effort to appreciate his friend's dilemma.

They arrived at the Headmaster's office just as Professor McGonagall entered the room.

"Hi!" Sirius said to the witch whose portrait they had arrived in. "Sirius Black, Marauder, at your service."

"Mr Black, kindly stop harassing Headmistress Greengrass," Professor McGonagall snapped.

"Black?" a horribly familiar voice rasped from the other side of the room.

"Phineas, old chap, lovely to see you again," Sirius called, waving smugly across the room.

"I remember you," Phineas said. "You're the criminal that disgraced the noble house of Black."

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius called back. "Save it for someone who cares."

"Mr Black," Professor McGonagall barked again. "You are in more than enough trouble already. Kindly desist with this endless squabbling."

Sirius glared across the room at Phineas, who was gloating supremely at the reprimand his descendant was receiving.

"Ah, Minerva, what brings you here?" an unfamiliar voice asked. Remus peered down into the room and saw a wizard he didn't recognise greeting Professor McGonagall.

"Headmaster," Professor McGonagall said. "I'm sorry to trouble you, but a situation has been brought to my attention, one that I believe you should know about."

The headmaster, a portly and elderly wizard nodded and waved her to a seat.

"It appears that we have an unexpected addition to the portraits here in Hogwart's." She waved her hand up towards where the Marauders were looking down at them. "You won't know them, of course. But I daresay you've heard them mentioned in the staff room on occasions."

Sirius leaned over to whisper in Remus's ear. "Add the staff room to our list, Moony."

"And they are?" the Headmaster asked curiously.

"The two black haired young men are Mr Potter and Mr Black."

"Not Harry Potter?"

"No, no," McGonagall assured him. "His father. The others are Mr Lupin, a former professor of Hogwart's and Mr Pettigrew."

"He looks a little young to be a professor," the Headmaster commented.

Remus caught the roll of the eyes of Professor McGonagall and stifled a smile. Apparently she was not overly impressed with the new Headmaster. He wondered idly why she had not been given the post herself; he was sure that she was more than capable.

"They have appeared as they were when they were at school, seventeen or eighteen years of age, I believe."

"Eighteen," Remus provided. "We were eighteen when we…er…"

"Thank you, Mr Lupin," Professor McGonagall said with a nod. "Now, clearly they should not be here, and are only here by means of some ill-advised prank…"

"But why are they here?" the Headmaster asked. "Can't see the point of it myself."

"I'm sure it was done for amusement and not with any real ill intentions," McGonagall stated. "They were the most destructive and prolific pranksters the school has ever known, despite Mr Lupin being a prefect and Mr Potter being Head Boy. I'm sure they thought this would be amusing."

"Wasn't Mr Black a Death Eater?" the Headmaster asked warily.

"I was not!" Sirius declared loudly. "He was the Death Eater." He pointed at Peter, making sure to poke his finger sharply into his shoulder to punctuate his words.

Professor McGonagall nodded. "I'm afraid that the reports in the Prophet are still not entirely accurate. Mr Black was unfortunately framed by Mr Pettigrew. It's all very complicated, but I'm sure someone will be happy to fill you in later."

"He's still a criminal," Phineas called out. "He might not have been responsible for the crimes he was imprisoned for, but I'm sure there's others. I heard about the illegal flying charms he placed on some muggle vehicle…"

"Yes, yes," Professor McGonagall interrupted. "Nevertheless, back to the matter at hand."

"And what matter would that be, Minerva?"

"Why, what we're going to do about them, of course. They can't be running around the school portraits, fighting and brawling whenever they wish."

"Fighting?" The Headmaster looked aghast. "I'm sure they wouldn't dream of doing such a thing."

"They already have," Professor McGonagall snapped. "Obviously, conventional detentions are out of the question. However, there are certainly numerous paintings out there in need of work, and as Headmaster they will be obliged to obey any orders that you give them."

The Headmaster nodded, though it seemed that the gesture was more automatic than anything else. "Perhaps you could take care of the instructions," he suggested. "You know the paintings in the school better than I. If I order them to obey you as they would me…"

"I believe that would suffice," Professor McGonagall agreed, turning back to the Marauders once more.

"Oh dear," Remus murmured under his breath. "I know that look."

-o-xXx-o-

"Well, this sucks," Sirius muttered for the umpteenth time.

"Quit complaining," James told him. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can have some fun round here."

"But clearing all the overgrown gardens by hand," Sirius complained. He glared out at the real world where their current guard, one of the school prefects, was watching them intently. McGonagall had all the school prefects on some form of rota all day, ensuring that they didn't take any magical shortcuts in their tasks.

Sirius cast a quick glance at Remus and smiled. "The overgrowth over there is out of sight of everyone," he whispered. "What do you say? Up for a bit of fun?"

"You can't wait until you get back to your bedchamber?" Peter asked.

Sirius ignored his question, merely throwing a heap of uprooted nettles at him.

"Ahem!" the prefect coughed, tapping on the painting to get their attention.

"What?" Sirius asked sulkily.

"I don't think Professor McGonagall wants you fighting again," the girl told them.

"Professor McGonagall didn't spend twelve years in Azkaban because of that little prick!" Sirius snapped, earning a whispered 'watch your language' from Remus.

"Twelve years?" the girl asked suspiciously. "What? Were you like six years old when you got sent there?"

Sirius gave her an impatient look. "We're all a lot older than we look. Apart from Prongs." He pointed at James. "He died young. The rest of us were in our thirties."

"Sounds like you all died young," the girl commented. "For wizards I mean."

"No need to feel sorry for us," Sirius assured her. "We're still here and we're all eager to have a little fun again."

"Padfoot, are you helping or flirting?" Remus asked with a knowing smirk.

"Helping, helping," Sirius promised, winking at the girl as he planted a kiss on Remus's cheek. "No need to get jealous."

"Were you two really having sex down in the painting of the docks?" the girl asked.

"No!" Remus gasped. "Sweet Merlin, how do these rumours get started?"

James gave him a droll stare. "I can't imagine."

"Would you like us to?" Sirius asked the girl. "You know, corrupting minors is our speciality."

Remus smacked him smartly upside the head. "Public sex is not going to happen," he warned him. "No matter how much you like shocking people by hinting at it."

Sirius laughed loudly. "I seem to recall you engaging in a very public act back in the day," he reminded him. "Even though we confunded all the portraits to forget we were ever in there, I still remember it clearly."

"That was an exception," Remus replied. "And there weren't any students watching us."

"Spoilsport," Sirius teased, before turning back to the prefect. "So, what's happening out in the real world these days? Any news on what Harry Potter's getting up to?"

James, catching the name of his son, strolled over to hear, warning Peter to carry on working if he knew what was good for him.

"There was a report in the Prophet a couple of weeks ago," the girl told them. "Something about the Ministry making an exception and allowing him to train as an Auror, even though he didn't take his NEWTs."

"That's great," James exclaimed. "My son, an Auror!"

"Your son?" The girl looked at him closely, immediately spotting the resemblance now that she was looking for it.

"And my Godson," Sirius added.

The prefect looked at Remus with a smirk. "And is he the Godmother?" she asked with a grin.

"Oooh," James exclaimed. "I like her. What's your name, love?"

"Helen," the prefect replied. "And don't call me 'love'."

James laughed again. "You remind me of my wife," he told her. "She had a bit of a mouth on her as well."

"Packed a mean hex, too," Sirius stage-whispered. "That's who Harry gets his fighting skills from."

Remus laughed as James gave Sirius a friendly punch. It was almost like old times…almost.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I know I still have a few reviews of this story to reply to. I promise I will be getting to those soon. And yes, I will be having the issues with Peter sorted out in this story...just not quite yet.

In the meantime, enjoy this chapter.

Warnings: Some bad language and naked puppies.

Chapter 7

"And then all their hair turned the colours of their houses!" Sirius was exclaiming as Remus stepped into the painting he was holding court in.

On the other side of the frame to the real world, half a dozen students were hanging on his every word and laughing loudly at the latest tale of the Marauders' exploits.

"So, this is where you're hiding," Remus commented as he approached Sirius.

Sirius turned to grin at him briefly, before turning back to the students. "And here we have the mastermind of that particular prank," he announced. "Come on, Moony, take a bow."

Remus rolled his eyes and sat down on the grass beside Sirius. Sirius, clearly thinking that that wouldn't do at all, tugged him so that he was sitting between his legs, leaning back against Sirius, who was in turn leaning against an ever-blossoming oak tree.

"Were you really Professor Lupin?" one of the students suddenly asked.

Remus, somewhat distracted by Sirius sucking on his earlobe, mumbled a quiet yes.

"I told you so," the girl who had asked said to the friend standing beside her. "What do you think about my crush now?"

Remus flushed and Sirius stopped his sucking long enough to whisper into his ear that he'd better not get any ideas.

The two girls gave them a wave and continued on their way, still debating the finer points of the ex Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.

"Professor?" one of the remaining boys asked.

"I'm not really a professor any more," Remus reminded him.

"I know, but our new teacher is a bit…er…"

"Bloody useless," a Ravenclaw student interrupted.

Remus rubbed the back of his neck and leaned forward. "That bad, huh?"

"If you could just explain a few things, it would be a great help."

Remus nodded and leaned as far against the frame as he could in order to see the textbook that the student had opened for him to see.

Every now and then he cast a glance back over to Sirius. "You can go find something else to do, if you like?" he told him.

"I'm fine here," Sirius replied with a smile.

"If you're sure?"

"Very," Sirius assured him, reaching out his leg to run his bare foot along Remus's spine.

Remus shivered and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. If only Sirius weren't trying his very best to distract him.

-o-xXx-o-

"You really liked teaching, didn't you?" Sirius commented as they travelled through the various paintings later that night.

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry it didn't last."

"Not your fault. The job was cursed; I knew that before I took the post."

Sirius nodded thoughtfully and slipped an arm around Remus's waist. "Are you going to tell me where we're going yet?"

"No," Remus teased. "You'll see when we get there."

Sirius griped a little, but he knew how stubborn Remus could be when he set his mind on something. He would just have to be patient.

"Here we are," Remus finally said as they walked through the painting of a bleak-looking castle on the edge of a dreary looking moor. "The next one is our destination."

Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought for a minute it was this one."

Remus laughed and they stepped through to the next painting.

"A beach!" Sirius said with a laugh of joy as he felt his feet sink into the sand.

Remus pulled his arm back from around Sirius and crouched down to take off his shoes. Sirius did likewise and they walked through the sand.

"This way," Remus said, tugging Sirius by the hand and guiding him towards the sea.

The climbed over the top of the dunes and made their way down to the lower beach.

"I never knew this was here," Sirius said as he spied the picnic spread out for them.

"I put this here earlier. One advantage of paintings is that the food never goes off."

"Wonder what it tastes like," Sirius said, picking up a plump green grape and looking at it dubiously.

"Don't know," Remus replied. "I got this lot from various paintings. It's really weird; if you take something out of a painting, the original replenishes itself as soon as you move to the next one."

"One way to find out how it tastes," Sirius said and he popped the grape into his mouth.

"How is it?" Remus asked. "It doesn't taste like paint, does it?"

Sirius shook his head. "It tastes like grapes, it just doesn't seem very fulfilling."

"Well, you only had one."

"It's not that, it's just…I can't explain it. Try one yourself and you'll see what I mean."

Remus nodded and took a grape from the pile. He chewed it and swallowed, trying to think what it was that was so strange about it.

"See what I mean?" Sirius asked.

"It's like, because we don't need to eat, its just going through the motions, there's no satisfaction that comes from easing a hunger."

"Never mind," Sirius assured him. "It's the thought that counts and there's plenty of other ways we can spend our time here besides eating."

Remus grinned at him and stood up. "I'm glad you think so," he said as he undid his robes. "Fancy a swim?"

"I don't have a swimsuit with me."

Remus's grin widened as his robes dropped to the floor, revealing that he was wearing nothing underneath. "Neither do I," he said.

Sirius cast a cautious look towards the frame to the real world, only now realising that he couldn't see it from their position.

"We're hidden from view," Remus confirmed. "Though I have to say, this is the first time I've ever seen you so prudent."

"Not prudent," Sirius told him as he hastily removed his own clothes. "I just don't want anyone but me to see you like this."

Remus smiled and began to run towards the sea. "Last one in 's a rotten egg!" he called back.

Sirius, who had been wearing far more clothes than Remus, was still trying to undo his shirt and called out 'cheater'.

Remus laughed and dove into the water, which was illuminated by a perfect full moon.

Sirius joined him a few minutes later and they splashed around together for a while, before their play turned into something else, and their breath was becoming shorter because of heated kisses instead of dunkings under the waves.

If anyone were passing the painting of the lonely beach, they would have to listen very closely to hear the sound of distant laughter from the two boys frolicking in the waves.

Anyone passing by would have to look very closely in order to see the distant figures of two naked young men, their arms entwined around each other, emerging from the sea and making their way back up the beach, before disappearing out of sight behind the sand dunes.

The only witness to any activities within the painting was an inquisitive and not entirely pleasant cat, one who went by the name of Mrs Norris. The cat in question was prowling the corridors, and with the sharp hearing of animals, clearly heard the sounds of lovemaking coming from nearby. It didn't take Mrs Norris long to figure out where the sounds were coming from, but the paintings weren't part of her jurisdiction and she continued on her way.

-o-xXx-o-

Sunrise on the beach was a spectacular sight. Only a painting could produce such a perfect cloudless sky.

Sirius and Remus were sitting beside each other on the blanket, both enjoying the sight and the quiet.

"Want another swim?" Sirius asked. "To wash up?"

Remus nodded and stood up. "There's sand everywhere," he muttered.

"Well, it is a beach," Sirius pointed out with a smirk.

"You know what I mean," Remus said as he took Sirius's hand and pulled him to his feet.

"Yeah, I know," Sirius replied. "Gets in all the bloody cracks, doesn't it?"

Remus laughed. "Race you again?" he suggested with a grin.

Sirius nodded, tripped Remus neatly with an outstretched leg and bolted for the ocean.

"Now who's the cheater?" Remus yelled after him as he stumbled to his feet and ran after Sirius.

Washing took longer than they thought it would; it was so easy to become distracted by each other, but eventually they made their way back up the beach to where they had left their clothes, wands and blankets.

"Well, I've not moved them," Sirius said with a frown as he looked up and down the empty stretch of land. None of their things were anywhere in sight.

"Perhaps they've disappeared because the painting has reset or something?" Remus suggested.

"Or perhaps it's nothing so complicated as all that?" Sirius said, pointing to a mark in the sand.

"What is it?" Remus asked, cocking his head to one side and squinting slightly.

"I think it's meant to be an antler," Sirius replied. "Which means Prongs has our stuff."

"That boy has way too much spare time on his hands," Remus muttered.

"He needs something to occupy his mind, that's for sure."

"What are we going to do?"

"Track him down and get our stuff back."

"But…" Remus gestured to Sirius and himself.

"Lovely though this beach is, I don't really want to spend eternity on it," Sirius pointed out. "It's still early, perhaps there won't be any students in the halls?"

"It's not that early," Remus replied. "And the other paintings will be awake by now."

"What do you suggest?"

"Perhaps Prongs will bring our things back soon…"

Sirius roared with laughter. "This is Prongs we're talking about. He'll have took our things back to our own painting, and he won't have any intention of bringing them back to us."

"We can't just wander back through the paintings like this. We're three floors away from our own painting."

"It's not like we have any other options."

"I'm going to kill him," Remus growled.

"Take a number, get in line," Sirius said. "Come on, the longer we hang around here, the more likely we are to be spotted."

"We could stay here all day and sneak back late tonight."

"And get yelled at by every painting on the way for waking them up."

"I thought you didn't like the idea of anyone else seeing me starkers?"

"I don't," Sirius muttered. "And I'll be taking notes of anyone who looks like they might be thinking of you _like that_."

Remus wrapped his arms around Sirius. "You've got nothing to worry about," he assured him. "I won't be looking at anyone apart from you from now on."

"You better not," Sirius warned, the teasing tone taking the harshness off his words. "Now, let's go."

Remus nodded and they scrambled back up the dunes, heading in the direction of the painting of the moor.

A quick glance towards the real world showed that the corridor was deserted for the moment and Remus breathed a sigh of relief.

"Right," Sirius announced. "We've got the moor in the next painting, then a couple of horses in meadow, then that painting of the armoury with the enchanted suits of armour. Nothings going to bother us in any of those."

"Maybe we could borrow some of the armour?"

"It's enchanted," Sirius reminded him. "What's after that painting?"

"The painting of the elderly witches in their potions lab."

Sirius grimaced as he remembered the witches in question. "Maybe we should try another route?"

"The other way takes us further off course and we'll have to go right past the main route for the Gryffindors to get to the Great Hall."

"Maybe we can persuade someone in one of the other paintings to lend us some clothes?"

Remus shrugged. "It's worth a try."

With no other options, the two young men cautiously stepped from the painting of the beach and onto the moor.

"Bloody hell, it's cold in this one," Sirius hissed. "I think my bits have shrivelled up."

"Oh, come on," Remus muttered, covering his own bits as best he could, while hurrying towards the painting of the horses.

"I'm going to kill Prongs," Sirius muttered as he ducked out of the way of one of the horses who had apparently taken offence to their presence.

"So you keep saying," Remus replied.

They arrived in the painting of the armoury with minimal damage.

"Maybe we can get a couple of the flags to wear," Remus suggested, pointing upward to where several flags were flying in a slight magical breeze. "They should be replaced like the food as soon as we take them out of this painting."

"Pity our clothes weren't replaced as soon as Prongs took them out of the painting," Sirius complained.

"That would be because it's not the painting they originated from," Remus pointed out. "Now, what about the flags, any ideas how we can get up there, or get them down?"

"Not without my wand."

"Maybe we can climb up using the axes and swords and stuff like steps…"

"They look wicked sharp," Sirius said. "I'm not sure it would sensible even if we still had shoes on. We're barefoot and I kind of like my toes attached to my feet."

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you like the idea of streaking through all the portraits," Remus commented.

"Well, it's not that bad. I just don't like the idea of you doing it."

"So, do you have any ideas about the flags?"

Sirius shook his head, although he did move closer to one of them to see how secure they were. He reached up to see if he could grab one of the weapons, intending to see if he could throw it at the pole with enough accuracy to cut it down. Unfortunately, his movements were hampered by one of the suits of armour, who took offence to his actions and appeared rather protective of the contents of the painting.

"But, it'll re-appear again as soon as we've gone," Sirius pointed out. Unfortunately, while the suits of armour were great guards, they were not the brightest conversationalists and didn't respond to Sirius's pleas.

"I think we'd better leave it," Remus said, edging towards the next painting, pulling Sirius along with him.

They stumbled into the painting of the witches in their lab, just in time to avoid the swinging mace of the guard.

"Well, there's no need for that!" Sirius exclaimed.

The two young men turned to the witches with sheepish smiles.

"Morning," Sirius said. "I don't suppose you'd have any spare robes around here?"

The witches smirked as they shook their heads in unison.

"You wouldn't lend us a couple of yours?" Sirius tried again. "They'll reappear as soon as we got moved into the next painting."

The smirks became even more pronounced as they shook their heads again.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Sirius accused.

The witches positively cackled as they nodded.

"Bloody hags," Sirius muttered as they hurried into the next painting, where two wizards playing chess couldn't stop laughing long enough refuse their requests for something with which to cover themselves.

After half a dozen more paintings they gave up wasting time by asking for something to cover themselves and tried a different tactic. They only tried borrowing cushions without asking once – that was enough to convince them that it was a bad idea to antagonise the longstanding residents of the painted world within Hogwart's.

They had made it through two floors before they saw confirmation that the students in the school were now wandering around the school.

"Crap!" Remus hissed as he ducked behind a tree, waiting for the two prefects to continue on their way.

"What are they doing wandering around this early?" Sirius whispered as he too hid behind the tree.

"Probably on their way to the prefects' bathroom," Remus replied. "Um…Sirius, you might want to step back a bit?"

"Why?" Sirius whispered as he peered round the tree.

"Why do you think?" Remus replied with a pointed glance downwards. "Do we need to have a basic biology lesson, focusing on how much I can cover up with my hands when I'm hard?"

Sirius chuckled, but stepped back so that he was no longer pressed up against Remus. "I think they're gone now."

Remus cautiously stepped out from behind the tree and saw that they were indeed out of sight. "Let's give them a few minutes to be on their way," he suggested. "We don't want to catch up with them a couple of paintings along."

Sirius agreed and five minutes later they carried on to the next painting.

They almost made it back to the room of requirement without being caught by any of the living. They just didn't take account of students wanting to use the room of requirement themselves. Since there were – technically – no living beings in the room of requirement, it was working normally for the rest of the inhabitants of the school, several of whom were using the room for their own sneaky purposes.

Sirius and Remus arrived at the stretch of corridor leading to the room to see that a student was walking away from them. Since her back was to them, they continued on their way, only to be spotted by the girl when she turned round to pace in the other direction.

Remus was thankful that at least the girl was one of the older students, and from her amused glance in their direction, it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before.

"Good morning, Professor Lupin," she called, and Remus recognised her as a former student who – why was he not surprised? – was a friend of Helen's. He had no doubt whatsoever that the story about the naked Professor Lupin and his equally naked lover, would be known by the entire school before the end of breakfast.

"Good morning," he replied quietly, before hurrying into the next painting, thankful that they were on the home stretch, so to speak.

Prongs, who had never had much sense when it came to his own safety, was waiting for them in the painting of the bedchamber.

"You wanker!" Sirius yelled as he lunged at James and pushed him back onto the mattress, straddling him in the process.

James grinned at him. "Not while Moony's watching, love," he teased.

Sirius responded to that with another punch, only leaving off his pummelling when Remus pulled him off of James in order to exact his own revenge for the prank.

Laughing and yelling, the three of them wrestled on the bed. They didn't see a pair of eyes watching them from the neighbouring painting. Nor did they hear the arrival of a visitor to their painting from the other direction, at least not until a throat cleared announcing the presence of Severus Snape.

"Although I always knew Black and Lupin were that way inclined, I never took you for a shirtlifter," he commented to James.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Remus twisted round at the sound of Snape's comment and gave a rather unmanly squeak. He reached blindly for something to cover himself with, neatly dislodging Sirius from the bed in the process.

Sirius, never particularly modest, casually picked himself up off the floor and walked to the wardrobe. "And to what do we owe this intrusion?" he asked icily.

"As the most recent addition to the collection of Headmaster's portraits, it is my honour to request your presence, and that of Lupin's before Professor McGonagall."

"Oh, you're the new errand boy," Sirius replied with a nasty smile.

"Sirius," Remus warned.

Sirius turned back to Snape and smiled again. "Fine, please be so good as to run along and tell Professor McGonagall that we will be with her shortly."

Snape sneered at him. "I may be at the beck and call of the staff of Hogwart's, but I am not at yours." With that he swept from the room, leaving Sirius and Remus to make themselves presentable.

"Look on the bright side," James commented. "We're young and gorgeous again, and he's old and just as ugly as he ever was."

"You don't seem surprised to see him here," Remus commented.

"McGonagall doesn't make idle threats," James replied. "She said he didn't have a portrait yet, so it was only a matter of time."

-o-xXx-o-

"Ah, there you are," Professor McGonagall said as they entered the painting with the bench once more. She finished writing something on the parchment on her desk and gave a longsuffering sigh.

"I suppose you both know why you're here?" she asked.

"It wasn't our fault," Sirius muttered sulkily. "We lost our clothes."

McGonagall raised an amused eyebrow. "And you had no other choice but to streak through the castle?"

"Exactly!"

"Mr Black, you are an animagus," McGonagall reminded him. "Did it not occur to you to transform during your journey?"

"Remus can't transform."

"Remus could have waited somewhere out of sight – there are plenty of places within the paintings – until you returned with clothing."

Remus cast a look at Sirius out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of that. He found it even harder to believe that Sirius had forgotten the most obvious solution to their predicament.

But of course, he hadn't forgotten, had he?

The easy way out of their problem wasn't as daring and amusing. There was no risk of being caught. It wasn't the Marauder way.

"I forgot," Sirius lied. He shrugged his shoulders and cast his face downwards. Remus knew that McGonagall knew as well as he did that it was to hide his amusement rather than a sign that he was sorry.

McGonagall sighed again. "Try not to let it happen again," she advised. "The last thing I need to hear over breakfast is tales of naked marauders streaking through the school."

"It won't," Remus promised, nudging Sirius with his elbow to encourage him to say likewise.

"Very well." McGonagall nodded approvingly. "You may leave Mr Black."

Sirius shot Remus a look of curiosity. Remus shrugged in reply, he had no idea why Sirius was being excused while he was forced to stay.

"It's nothing for you to worry about," McGonagall told him. "This is with regard to Remus's…er…family."

"Oh."

"It's all right," Remus interrupted. "Sirius knows. I'd like him to stay."

McGonagall nodded and waved them to take a seat on the bench. "Remus, I hope you don't mind, but I took it upon myself to make some enquiries about your son after I was made aware of your presence here."

"You have?"

"Since neither yourself nor Nymphadora survived the battle, I assumed you would be concerned for the boy."

Remus nodded slowly. "Harry agreed to be his godfather."

"So I'm told," McGonagall replied. "However, Harry is very young and has no experience in raising children."

Remus chewed on his lip as he continued to nod.

"Teddy is in the care of Andromeda Tonks."

Remus let out an audible sigh of relief. "He's doing all right, isn't he?"

"You can see for yourself," McGonagall told him with a kindly smile. "You can come in now," she called towards the door.

Remus gripped Sirius's hand tightly as the door opened, revealing Andromeda and Teddy.

"Remus," Andromeda greeted him with a sharp nod as she approached the painting. "Sirius."

Remus seemed to be stuck to his seat, at least until Sirius gave him a nudge, urging him forward.

He approached the frame to the real world and looked down at where his son was being held in his grandmother's arms. "He's grown so much," he whispered.

"It's been nearly six months," Andromeda reminded him. "As you can see, he's quite well."

Remus nodded and waggled his fingers at his son. "Hi there, Teddy. Do you remember me?"

Teddy gurgled a little smiled back at him.

"Do you remember me?" he asked. "I'm your Daddy. Do you remember?"

Of course the baby was too young to reply, but if Remus wanted to believe that his lively movements were a nod of agreement, no one wanted to tell him differently.

Sirius gave Remus a few minutes before he joined him at the frame of the painting. "And I'm your Uncle Sirius," he said with a grin as he waggled his own fingers to get the child's attention.

"Actually, you're his first cousin, twice removed," Andromeda corrected.

Sirius waved away her correction. "I'm your Uncle Sirius," he repeated with another grin. "He has your eyes," he said to Remus.

Suddenly Teddy's hair changed from brown to blue. "And his mother's hair," Remus laughed.

"We can't stay long," Andromeda told him. "But, if it's all right with Professor McGonagall, I'll try to come by once a month so that you can see him."

"Of course, of course," McGonagall assured her. "I'd be delighted to see you both. Just let me know when you're coming and I'll make sure that Remus knows."

"Thank you," whispered Remus, his hand still flat against the barrier to the real world.

"I'll walk you to the gates," McGonagall said a few minutes later when Andromeda had insisted she couldn't stay any longer without disrupting Teddy's daily routine.

"He's registered to attend Hogwart's," Remus told her. "The fees are…we hadn't saved the money yet…there's some in my Gringott's account…it's not enough…but…"

Andromeda nodded. "Teddy will attend Hogwart's, I promise."

They said their goodbyes and McGonagall left with Andromeda and Teddy.

"That was nice of McGonagall," Sirius commented.

Remus nodded but didn't say anything.

"What's wrong? Aren't you happy to see him looking so well?"

"Yes," Remus whispered. "I just wish I could touch him. He was right there and I couldn't touch him."

"But you got to see him," Sirius pointed out. "And, it'll take a least ten minutes for McGonagall to walk them to the gates. Ten minutes whilst we're alone here, in her office." The witch in the portrait on the other wall coughed to remind them of her presence. "Nearly alone."

"That's your answer for everything, isn't it?" Remus snapped. "Sex will solve everything."

"I didn't mean…"

Remus shrugged Sirius's hand off his arm and glared at him. "I know exactly what you meant. You don't understand anything!"

Sirius watched as Remus stormed out of the painting.

"You'd better go after him," the witch in the other painting advised.

Sirius nodded and hurried back to the bedchamber, assuming that was where Remus had gone. Instead he found the room empty.

James was arguing with Peter in the neighbouring painting, so Sirius joined them in there. "Has Remus been back here?" he asked.

James shook his head. "How much trouble did you get into? You want me to go tell McGonagall it was my fault?"

"Nah, she just told us not to do it again. But Remus stormed off."

"Over that?"

"No, not that. Any ideas where he could have gone?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"So, what have you done now?" Peter asked.

"Did you hear something?" Sirius asked James. "This annoying sort of squeaking noise. Wonder what it could be…"

"How long are you going to keep this up?" Peter asked.

"There it is again," Sirius commented. "Never mind, it can't be anything important. I'm going to go and find Remus. I'll fill you in later."

"Good luck," James said.

-o-xXx-o-

Remus stopped running when he reached the painting of an old Roman building near the foot of the tower where Divination classes were held. He sank down onto the steps and ran his hands over his face. He was already sorry that he had snapped at Sirius, but he wasn't quite ready to return and apologise just yet.

He just hadn't realised that seeing his son again would be so hard.

A couple of the Romans spoke to him in their native tongue, but Remus merely shook his head and waved them away. He didn't speak their language and suspected that they were simply telling him to move along from where he was sitting.

He wasn't sure what to expect from Sirius when he caught up with him. If he had thought about it for more than a solitary moment, he would have guessed that Sirius would do what he always did. He would sit down beside him, put his arm around his shoulders and hold him close while he told him he understood and everything would work out all right.

It therefore came as something of a surprise when Sirius finally tracked him down.

"Hiding out in the crowd," Sirius commented.

"I'm not hiding."

"Sure you're not. I figured something out today, you know?"

Remus looked him curiously as he sat down beside him. "And?"

"And I figured out why we are so great together."

Remus frowned, not expecting this at all.

"It's because we're both so bloody selfish," Sirius told him as he looked out towards the real world. It looked like Divination had just finished and the students from the class were passing by on their way to their next lesson.

It took a moment for Sirius's words to register in his mind, and when they did all Remus could do was stammer 'What?'

"We're both selfish," Sirius repeated with a firm nod. "I always knew I was; I'm a Black, so it's sort of in our nature. We're used to getting our own way and get real possessive. But you knew that already, everyone does."

"I'm not selfish," Remus mumbled.

"Yes, you are," Sirius told him. "Do you have any idea how bloody lucky you are? Do you have any clue at all how many people would envy what you have?"

"Oh yes," Remus sarcastically replied. "I have the great Sirius Black. How could I ever have forgotten."

"I'm not talking about me," Sirius snapped. "I'm talking about your son. You're dead. Like it or not you were murdered by a Death Eater…which means you are dead and buried somewhere out there. Tonks is dead too, but I'll bet anything she would envy you getting to see your son again. You get to see him, to watch him grow up. When he's old enough, you'll be able to speak with him. Do you have any idea how many of the dead would long for just a few minutes with their loved ones?"

"I…" Remus didn't know what to say. He gaped at Sirius, trying to process the reprimand he hadn't even seen coming.

Sirius drew in a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said all that."

Remus reached out and took hold of his hand. "Yes, you should. You're right, I am lucky. I just needed someone to remind me of that."

"Oh, come here," Sirius muttered. He pulled his hand from Remus's and pulled him towards him. They embraced on the steps for a couple of minutes.

"I suppose you want to do something here, right?" Remus chuckled.

Sirius shook his head. "No. You were right, sex isn't the answer to everything."

"Sirius Black turning down sex…I'd better make a note of the time and date."

"Oh, that was an offer, was it?" Sirius teased.

Remus laughed. "Do you know where we are?"

Sirius shook his head.

"The building at the back of us is the Roman Baths."

"Baths?"

"With fresh water instead of salt," Remus added. "Heated too."

"Why haven't we been here before?"

"Didn't know what it was," Remus explained. "I knew about the painting being of a Roman building, but not what it was exactly. At least I think it's the Baths, seems to be anyway." He pointed to a group of young men who were exiting the building. From the sight of them, they appeared to have been either bathing or had been caught in a sudden downpour.

"One way to find out."

Remus nodded and stood up. "I hope they let us in."

Sirius stood up and followed Remus up the steps and into the building.

It was immediately apparent that Remus's guess had been correct and they shed their robes and stepped into the heated water.

"Aaaah," Sirius gasped. "A hot bath…at last."

Remus leaned back closed his eyes. "I've missed this." He gave a sigh of contentment as he relaxed in the water.

"Pity it's so crowded," Sirius commented, with a sigh of his own. "If it weren't I'd be tempted to take you up on your earlier offer."

"You're not very observant all of a sudden," Remus replied, opening his eyes and grinning at Sirius. He nodded across the room and Sirius gasped to see two young men, perhaps a few years older than they were, locked in a passionate embrace.

"Whoa!"

"You know what they say?" Remus said with a grin.

Sirius shook his head.

"When in Rome…"

-o-xXx-o-

By the time of Teddy's second visit to the castle, Remus was fully reconciled to be grateful for the chance he had, and had persuaded Sirius to teach him a long-forgotten spell to make music come from his wand.

However, whilst Sirius had used it to cause disruption in class by having all the students' wands blare out muggle rock songs, Remus was planning to use it to play softer music for Teddy to listen to.

As they walked back to the Room of Requirement after the visit was over, Remus's thoughts turned back to the previous visit and what had happened afterwards. "I don't think you're selfish," he told Sirius.

"Liar."

"No, really, I don't. Not any more."

Sirius looked like he didn't believe him.

"If you were that selfish, you wouldn't want to visit Teddy with me."

Sirius blushed. "Come on, before my head swells too much to fit through the frames."

Remus chuckled and they continued on their way.

They arrived in the painting that led directly to their bedchamber, only to find Severus Snape was waiting for them.

"Snivellus," Sirius muttered.

"Severus," Remus said with a nod of greeting.

They hadn't seen much of the former Headmaster since his initial appearance in their bedchamber a month before. Which, in the opinion of all the Marauders, could only be construed as a good thing.

"Potter is refusing to let me through to your painting," Severus explained.

Remus peered around him to see that James was indeed standing guard at the entrance to the painting.

"Good work, Prongs!" Sirius called. "I don't want any grease on my belongings."

"As original with your insults as ever," Severus sneered. "I would not be here if the choice were mine…unfortunately it is not."

Remus mumbled something under his breath about childish grudges and stubborn gits. "Come on, let's get this sorted out once and for all. The library will do."

"You're not serious?" Sirius asked, not moving from the spot where he was standing, glaring at Snape with unconcealed venom.

"Now!" Remus insisted. "You too, James. I'll be damned if I'm spending eternity listening to you three squabbling."

They made their way through the bedchamber, some more reluctantly than others, into Peter's bar, and into Remus's library.

Peter, who after being caught had rarely moved from his own painting, followed them.

"Want something?" James asked coldly.

"I thought…"

"Well don't! You haven't the brains for it."

Remus felt a small twinge of sympathy for Peter as he scurried back into his own painting, but it wasn't enough for him to speak up on his behalf. Besides, it would be difficult enough to sort out the squabbling with James, Sirius and Severus, without adding the issues with Peter into the equation.

Severus took a seat on one of the sofas, Remus and Sirius sat on the one opposite him, and James stood sulking behind them.

Since it seemed that no one was prepared to make the first move, it was left to Remus once again. "Severus, how much do you know about Harry's final confrontation with Voldemort?"

"I know he defeated him."

"Do you know how? Do you know how he obtained the power to do so?"

"I was not a witness to the battle, but I know where the power came from. It was old magic."

Remus nodded. "Old magic that would not have been activated were it not for you."

James made an annoyed sound from behind him, but Remus ignored him.

"Just because he fancied another bloke's wife," Sirius muttered, folding his arms and glaring even more harshly at Severus.

"Loved," Remus amended quietly.

Severus neither confirmed nor denied his words.

"Although it may not seem so, I believe we all have at least a little in common, and it's long past time we learned to get along with each other," Remus continued. "We'll be here with each other for as long as Hogwart's stands, and the thought of spending eternity breaking up fights between you three makes me want to persuade some reckless first year to set my painting on fire."

"No one's asking you to interfere," Severus pointed out.

"Well I am!"

"Obviously."

"You could at least attempt to be civil," Remus snapped, his temper rising despite his best efforts to stay calm.

"I am being perfectly civil," Severus replied. "However, as I have already said, I have no wish to be here and am quite content to avoid you so-called Marauders as much as I can."

"Why are you here?" James asked curiously, and with as much civility as he had ever shown to Severus in his entire life.

"Professor McGonagall requested I try to ascertain where your paintings are hanging," Severus explained. "She has been unable to locate them herself, and as a portrait myself I am obviously able to access the paintings and see their locations that way."

"You can't tell her where our portraits are!" Sirius exclaimed. He reached for his wand and pointed it at Severus's chest.

"I am bound to the school," Severus reminded him. "I am duty-bound to report my findings."

"They'll get rid of our paintings," Sirius hissed.

"One can but hope," Severus replied with a cold smile.

"Enough!" Remus shouted. "That's it, I've had it with this bloody feud!"

"Uh oh," James murmured, edging back towards his own painting.

"Don't you dare," Remus said, pointing at the ground where James had previously been standing. James dutifully stepped back to his former position. "Right, who wants to go first?"

Remus wasn't surprised to find that there were no volunteers.

"Fine. Severus, I'm sorry I never stepped in to stop the others bullying you when we were back at school."

Severus shrugged, with feigned unconcern.

Remus turned to Sirius. "Your turn."

Sirius folded his arms again and looked away.

"Sirius, if you don't apologise right now, I swear you're going to be spending the rest of eternity celibate."

Sirius shot him look that told him that he didn't believe for a minute that Remus would be able to keep to that threat.

"Damn it!" Remus swore. "Is it so much to ask that you just swallow your bloody pride for once?" He turned his glare on James. "What about you?"

James looked more than a little uncomfortable as Remus glared at him.

"Let me show you something," Remus said, making a valiant effort to keep his voice even. He walked over to one of the bookcases and pulled out the book that activated the secret doorway.

On the other side of the door, steps led down into the room where he would have spent the full moons had his Lycanthropy remained with him after his appearance as a portrait.

"You should see this," Remus said as he held open the door and gestured to the other three to head down the stairs.

"What is it?" Sirius asked as he looked into the blackness below.

Remus took his wand from Sirius, said 'Lumos' and passed the lit wand back. "You'll see. Prongs, Severus, you too."

Reluctantly but curiously the three men made their way down the stairs.

"What are we supposed to see?" James asked, turning round just in time to see Remus slam the door shut and lock it with as many spells as he could think of. With a bit of luck they would have worked through their differences by the time they emerged.

Grabbing a favourite book from the shelf, he settled down to wait it out.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Remus was about half way through chapter eleven when the door to the hidden room swung open.

"You're obviously slipping," Sirius commented dryly as he threw himself onto the sofa and plucked the book from Remus's hands. "How long have we been in there?"

"Ten and a half chapters," Remus replied as James and Severus sat down on the opposite sofa.

"Did you know that Severus supports the Falcons?" James asked.

"Ruddy useless team," Sirius added.

"They're better than the Harpies," James argued.

"Well, this is an improvement," Remus mumbled under his breath. "Instead of arguing about who did what to who, we're arguing about Quidditch."

"We're not arguing," James said. "We're discussing."

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Severus has agreed to referee the first match in my painting," James added with a grin.

"I thought you'd only managed to talk two other players into joining you?"

"Three."

"It's still not enough for a team."

"Severus says that several of the former Headmasters were players back in their day. One of them was Captain of the Kestrels back in the eighteenth century."

Remus watched with a bemused expression on his face as Severus and James actually ganged up on Sirius to argue their case for which players would make up the best Quidditch team ever.

"Moony, back me up!" Sirius ordered. "This is all your fault, the least you can do is offer me your support."

"Just out of curiosity," Remus said. "Did any of you actually discuss anything important down there, or apologise for anything?"

"Of course we were discussing something important," James replied immediately. "We were discussing Quidditch!"

Remus shook his head and sighed. Sometimes it was simply better not to ask.

The conversation carried on, and although there were several barely concealed insults from all three of them, for once, no one was really rising to take the bait. Remus suspected that they would never be close friends with Severus, there was simply too much history between them. However, given eternity, they might at least learn to respect each other and restrain themselves from drawing their wands immediately they spotted the others.

"I should be reporting back to Minerva," Severus announced later that afternoon. "She will no doubt be waiting for me."

"You're not going to tell her where the portraits are?" James asked.

"I am bound to the school," Severus reminded him impatiently. "I have no choice."

"But she'll get rid of us!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I very much doubt she will do that," Severus replied calmly. "Professor McGonagall has favoured the Gryffindors for as long as I can remember. She likes having you around."

"Then why does she want to know how to get to our paintings?" James questioned.

Severus shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I didn't bother to ask."

With that Severus swept from the painting. They watched him cast a malevolent look at Peter as he passed through his painting, then he was through the bedchamber and gone.

"I guess he's not so bad," James said. "Wouldn't want him to move in here with us or anything, though."

"Definitely not," Sirius agreed.

Remus chuckled as he picked up his book.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing."

"No, what was that laugh for?"

"Nothing."

Sirius pulled the book out of his hands and tossed it onto the table. "Now, you are going to tell me what's so funny, or I'm going to be the one withholding sexual favours."

Remus laughed out loud.

"What's so bloody funny?"

"Ah, Sirius. You and James are just so unpredictable."

"And that's funny?"

"Yeah, that's funny. I lock the three of you up to get you to sort out your problems, and all you do is talk about Quidditch."

"That wasn't all we did," Sirius teased, waggling his eyebrows. "Are you jealous?"

"You're not funny," Remus told him, poking the snickering young man in the ribs.

"It's not fair," Sirius whined. "You're too difficult to wind up."

James cleared his throat to get their attention. "What are we going to do about McGonagall?"

"I don't know," Sirius replied. "We can't have her coming in here and removing the paintings."

"You don't believe Snape?"

"No. McGonagall might favour the Gryffindors, but it doesn't mean she wants us hanging around to influence the students."

"She shouldn't be able to get into the Room of Requirement," James commented as he walked over to the frame and looked into the room in question.

"She might be able to now," Remus said. "The way to get into the room is to ask for it to provide the room where the paintings of the Marauders are hidden. She will know what to look for now."

"Well, that won't do," Sirius muttered. "Is there any way we can change the room?"

"Not from within the paintings."

"Maybe we could give a few potential pranksters access to the room, and get them to change it?" James suggested.

"Into what?"

"I don't know."

"Well, unless you can think of something, I suggest that the fewer people invited into the room, the better."

"Maybe they could do a sit in and protect the paintings?" Sirius suggested.

"One threat of detention with McGonagall will send them running."

"I think we're just going to have to hope that she doesn't want to get rid of us," Remus said. "I think the best we can do is behave ourselves as much as possible."

"Blasphemy!" James declared. "Call yourself a Marauder?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "The more trouble we cause, the more likely it is she'll want to get rid of us."

"I suppose we could behave ourselves for a day or two," James grudgingly relented.

Remus knew that was the best he could hope for.

-o-xXx-o-

The next Saturday morning the Room of Requirement received a guest in the form of Professor McGonagall.

"Potter, if you could come down please!" she called into the painting of the Quidditch pitch.

James heard her call from his position high above the ground, and flew down to greet her. "Good morning, Professor," he politely greeted her.

"Where are Black and Lupin?" she asked, after saying hello to Peter.

James shrugged his shoulders. They were disappearing all the time, and rarely told him where they were sneaking off to.

"Very well," McGonagall replied. She sounded somewhat annoyed, but clearly had no intention of letting it bother her too much, as she looked at the paintings with open curiosity. She also looked through the items that had been stored in the room, confiscating the various contraband from Filch's list of banned items.

"Professor?" James asked cautiously. McGonagall turned to face him once more. "Are you getting rid of us?"

"Unfortunately not," McGonagall replied with a small smile that betrayed her amusement at the question.

"So, we can stay?"

"Apparently."

"We thought you'd get rid of us."

McGonagall stopped gingerly examining some unknown pranking item and gave James her undivided attention. "The Battle of Hogwart's, as they are calling it, has done irreparable damage to the reputation of the school. It will never be completely forgotten. However, it seems that your presence here is doing a little to help. The paintings of the Father and Godfather of the Chosen One are apparently too important to be shut away in a warehouse."

"What about Remus?" James asked. "You can't take him away from Sirius!"

"Remus was a much loved teacher, in the short time he was here. He lost his life in the Battle of Hogwart's, and I suspect that if his portrait was removed, there would be an outcry from his former students, not to mention those he has been tutoring since his return."

"You know about his tutoring?"

"When will you learn, Potter? I know everything."

James laughed.

Professor McGonagall smiled as she continued her searching. "I notice you didn't ask about Peter's painting," she commented without looking at James.

"You can burn it for all I care," James muttered.

"Oh."

"What did you want to speak to Sirius and Remus for?" James asked, eager to change the subject.

"Merely to let them know that Andromeda and Teddy will be visiting later next month; they are intending to visit on Christmas Eve."

"I'll let them know."

"Thank you. And Potter?"

"Yes?"

"Next time you wish to organise a Quidditch match, please check the date with me first. I understand that it is a great thrill for you to have a former professional Quidditch Captain playing on your team, but his presence is required for staff meetings, as is that of Severus."

"The portraits have to attend staff meetings?"

"Some of them."

"Well, that must suck."

"As I am sure you have already discovered, being a portrait here is not always fun and games."

James nodded, and across the room Peter did likewise.

-o-xXx-o-

"There you are!" Sirius exclaimed as he finally found James, sitting on the stone bridge over a murky looking stream. "Been looking all over for you."

"I thought you were seeing Teddy with Moony?"

"I was."

"So, what are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd leave them to have some time alone," Sirius said. "At least as alone as they can be with Andromeda taking care of Teddy."

James turned to look at Sirius, knowing him too well, and realising that there was something else. "And…?"

"I just thought it would be nice for them to be alone together."

"Liar."

"Fine," Sirius huffed. "Remus was telling him about Tonks. I didn't really want to stay around and listen to him talking about her."

"I thought you were dealing with all that?"

"I am…sort of." Sirius picked up a stone from the ground and threw it into the water. "I'm fine when we're alone together. Even when he's seeing Teddy, I can usually deal. But I can't listen to him talking about their little family…not knowing I was never a part of it."

"You're a part of his family now," James reminded him. "Uncle Sirius, right?"

"Yeah. You should come and see him, too. You're sort of his Grand-Godfather, or something like that."

"Maybe next visit, if Remus doesn't mind."

"'Course he won't." Sirius climbed up onto the stone wall to sit beside his best friend. "So, why are you sitting moping around here with a face like a wet weekend?"

"I'm not moping."

"Liar."

James shook his head and laughed. "I was just thinking."

"Well, don't overdo it."

"Git!"

"Seriously, what's up?"

"Just wondering why Remus gets monthly visits with his son and I don't," James finally muttered. "McGonagall went out of her way to track down Teddy and arrange for him to be brought here to see him. My son's grown, and should be able to get here on his own, but hasn't bothered."

"Maybe he doesn't know you're here," Sirius suggested. "It's not like he's been to see me either."

"Why would McGonagall tell Andromeda about us, and encourage her to bring Teddy, but not tell Harry?"

"Maybe he's been busy. Rebuilding after a war is always hard. He wanted to be an Auror too, and you know how much training that involves."

"It's Christmas Eve," James reminded him. "You're telling me he couldn't bring himself to stop by for five minutes on Christmas Eve?"

"There could be any one of a number of reasons why he hasn't come."

"He hates me. There's a reason!"

"Of course he doesn't."

"He arranged for Snape's portrait to be made," James said. "You said yourself that he'd seen us after the Defence exam in the pensieve. I think it's bloody obvious what's happened. He hates me because of what we did to Snape."

"Rubbish!"

"Is it?"

"Yes! I'm sure as soon as things have settled down, Harry will be here to see you…to see us."

"Wish I was so sure," James said as he gazed down into the waters once more.

-o-xXx-o-

"Merry Christmas, Moony," chirped Sirius, the moment Remus had opened his eyes on Christmas morning.

"I'm too comfy to get up just yet," Remus murmured as he snuggled closer beneath the blankets.

"How can you possibly be tired?" Sirius asked. "We're portraits, we don't get tired any more!"

"You wore me out," Remus replied sleepily.

"Don't you want your Christmas present?"

"There's nowhere to go Christmas shopping in the paintings," Remus reminded him.

"I know. I didn't buy it."

"Please tell me you didn't steal whatever it is?"

"You know me too well," Sirius chuckled. "But, no, I didn't steal it."

Remus smiled and stretched. "I haven't got you anything," he admitted sheepishly.

"Of course you have," Sirius said. "Now, come on, get up. I've found the greatest painting for us to visit."

"You have?"

"Yeah. It's in Ravenclaw Tower, halfway up the stairs to the girls' dorms."

"What in the world were you doing up there?"

"There's a portrait up there of the inventor of the magical camera. I wanted to ask if he had a camera with him when he was painted."

"Why?"

"So I could borrow it and get some pictures of Teddy for you."

"Really?"

"Don't get excited; he wasn't painted with it, and I've no idea where to find one within the paintings."

"So, his painting isn't the one we're visiting?"

"No, the one I have in mind was on the way there. It's so amazing, just wait until you see it."

-o-xXx-o-

"What do you think?" Sirius asked as he bounced around the painting. "How freaky is this?"

"The sky is amazing," Remus said. "There's Sirius, right above you."

"But it has the same gravity as the actual moon," Sirius exclaimed as he continued to move around the painting.

"I'm just glad we don't need to breathe any more," Remus said as he took a few tentative steps across the surface of the painting of the moon.

"Isn't it great?" Sirius called. "Hey, want to see a dog fly?"

A moment later Padfoot was leaping about the surface, much to Remus's amusement.

"You're mad, you know?" Remus called, as he tried to keep up with the barking mad animagus.

Padfoot made one final leap, right into Remus, and turned back into Sirius. "Gotcha!"

Remus looked up at Sirius with a grin. "Totally insane."

-o-xXx-o-

They arrived back at the Room of Requirement later that morning, surprised to see the door to the room itself open as they approached it from the paintings on the other side of the hall.

"Come on," Sirius urged Remus, and they hurried through the paintings to see what was happening.

The first thing they saw when they arrived was McGonagall, who appeared to be having some sort of argument with James.

"I'm not going to remove Peter's painting. There's nowhere else to put it in the main school. You'll just have to learn to get along."

"But-"

"But, nothing," McGonagall snapped. "Now, if you would just be sensible and try to co-operate."

"I don't see why we should have someone else in here, keeping an eye on us and spying on us for you," James muttered.

"This isn't open for debate," McGonagall replied. "Ah, Black, Lupin, perhaps you'll be a little more reasonable."

"She wants to put the painting of someone else in here, to keep an eye on us," James told them. "Tell her she can't."

McGonagall cast a sweeping gaze over them all. "I think you'll find that I can. Now, where do you wish the painting to be situated?"

"Outside!" James snapped, his comment immediately echoed by Sirius.

"Professor?" Remus said as he stepped forward. "Perhaps…"

His suggestion that maybe this wasn't the best of ideas was cut off by a knock on the open door, and the appearance of a very familiar face peering around the wood.

"Ah, Potter, there you are."

Harry Potter stepped into the room, two unfamiliar wizards with a large sealed painting following close behind him. "Sorry; it took longer to get it up the stairs than we thought it would. The staircase from the second floor moved while we were on it; we had to detour round half the school to get back on course."

"Harry?" James asked.

Harry turned to look at the painting of his father. They appeared almost identical, their ages similar. "Hi, Dad."

"You've come to visit us."

"Of course I have. Sorry I didn't come sooner. It took longer to get things ready than I thought."

"What things?" James asked.

"Professor McGonagall told me you were all here, almost immediately after she found out. But, it seems to me that there's a painting missing."

"You didn't?" James gasped.

Harry grinned up at him, nodding.

"But how?"

"I'd already gone through the whole process to get Professor Snape his portrait," Harry explained. "My memories of him were used to give life and personality to the painting. As I knew him as a student, those memories were the strongest.

"I don't have many memories of Mum, and when I was told that you were all young again, I knew you'd want her to be too. I just had to persuade the authorities to let me. It's hard to say no to the Chosen One and they finally agreed. Then I had to track down other people who knew her at eighteen, Professor McGonagall, other teachers, Aunt Petunia…they all contributed."

"You got Petunia to give you memories?" James asked. "How?"

"With great difficulty," Harry replied with a chuckle. "Uncle Vernon nearly burst a blood vessel. He had to be obliviated before we left."

"Can I see her?" James asked.

"Well, that depends," McGonagall interrupted. "You weren't so keen on having anyone joining your little gang a few minutes ago."

"That was before I knew it was Lily," James pointed out. "You knew, didn't you?"

"Of course."

"And you didn't tell me!"

"I knew that Harry wanted to be here when you found out. Now, where would you like her to be placed?"

"Next to me!" James demanded. "Moony's library can go over there." He pointed at Sirius's painting. "Then move the bedchamber across to the right."

"That's the doorway," Sirius pointed out.

"My right, not your right," James replied impatiently.

"Why does my painting have to move anyway?" Sirius asked.

"Because I'm sick of facing your bedroom," James replied.

"You think I want to be facing yours?" Sirius retorted.

They continued to argue for another ten minutes, at which point Remus, deciding to leave them to it, turned to Harry with a smile. "How are you doing?" he asked. "Life getting back to normal again?"

"When has it ever been normal?" Harry replied with a chuckle. "No, it's good. Busy though."

"I'll bet."

Harry cast a glance across to where Sirius was now in James's painting, their argument reaching new levels of volume. He shook his head and turned to look at the other paintings. "Your library?" he asked.

"Yes, though we all spend time in it."

A noise of annoyance from Peter drew Harry's attention to him.

"Peter," Harry greeted him with a curt nod.

"Harry," Peter replied.

Harry ran his hand nervously through his hair. "I never got a chance to thank you," he said quietly. "You know, for doing the right thing…at the end."

Peter grunted.

Harry ran his hand over his throat at the memory of the last time he had seen Peter. "Though you didn't have to leave it quite so late," he added.

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked.

"I thought I told you everything that had happened at Malfoy Manor," Harry replied. "Didn't I tell you about Peter?"

Remus shook his head. "Probably couldn't get a word in, what with me telling you about Teddy and everything."

"I can't believe I forgot though."

"You had a lot on your mind."

"I take it you didn't ask Peter how he died?"

Remus ducked his head, feeling slightly guilty. "Didn't think to."

"It was back there. He had a life debt after I spared his life in the Shrieking Shack, remember?" Remus nodded. "I reminded him of it, and the moment he hesitated in doing Voldemort's bidding, he lost his life."

"Strangled by my own bloody hand," Peter muttered. "Should have known any gift from the Dark Lord would have strings attached…and lethal ones at that."

"If he hadn't stopped, I wouldn't have survived to face Voldemort at all," Harry explained.

"It doesn't change what he did, Harry," Remus told him.

"I know. But, perhaps he shouldn't have to spend the rest of eternity paying for it?"

Remus cast a look at Peter, who was looking back at him, almost hopefully. "I'll talk to the others," he said with a sigh. "But, you've got to do your part too," he warned Peter. "No more winding the rest of us up with nasty comments. If you want to be part of the group again you've got to work at holding your tongue."

Peter nodded.

Remus stepped into his painting and held out his hand. Peter hesitated a moment, before reaching out to shake it.

"Now, what about Lily?" Remus said. "I imagine she's probably getting a little impatient by now."

Harry turned to look at where James and Sirius were still arguing. "I think we should just go ahead and leave them to it."

"Good idea," McGonagall agreed. "I would like to be done before Christmas dinner is served. You will be staying, won't you?"

"Sorry, the Weasleys are expecting me at one."

"Perhaps another time," McGonagall said. "Now, what are we going to move first?"

It took nearly half an hour, but eventually the paintings were arranged to everyone's satisfaction. Sirius's bedchamber remained where it was, with Remus's library moving to where Peter's pub had been. James's Quidditch pitch moved to where Remus's library had been, and Lily's painting of a cosy living room was placed in James's former spot. Peter's pub meanwhile, was placed in the centre of the room, between Remus and James. It was a tight fit at first, but the room, ever helpful, expanded to accommodate the extra painting.

"I'll be back to see you again soon," Harry promised. "Just try to behave. If I get any more reports about detentions, I won't be pleased." With a teasing grin he left them to it.

Later that day everyone – even Peter and Severus – was congregating in Lily's living room.

"So, how do you like your Christmas present?" Lily asked as she smiled at James.

"Best ever!" he declared.

The evening passed companionably, Severus making his excuses first, with Peter not long after.

"It's good to see you again, Sev," Lily said as she hugged him farewell.

"You too," Severus replied. "I'll be around if you need anything, though I think you have everything here."

It was only when Sirius and Remus declared their intention to leave the happy couple alone that James realised that there was one thing they needed that they didn't have.

"We could take it in turns." James suggested.

"No way."

"But you've had it all this time."

"No."

"Moony?"

"Sorry, Prongs."

"It's not fair."

"Come on, Moony. Let's go to bed."

"You're both gits, you know that?" James yelled.

Sirius turned to grin back at him. "But we're gits who have a bed."

"The least you could do is share it with us."

"A foursome?" Sirius teased. "Didn't know you had it in you, Prongs."

"You know what I meant. You can have it on one day and we can have it the next."

"You're the one who wanted to spend an eternity on a Quidditch pitch."

"It's not fair!"

Remus laughed as Sirius pulled him towards their own painting. "Prongs, you're a wizard for Merlin's sake. Use your bloody wand and transfigure something in Lily's sitting room into a bed for the night."

"Moony," Sirius whined. "What did you have to tell him that for? It would have been at least a month's worth of amusement to wait for him to figure that out…with him getting more horny by the day."

"It might have taken Prongs a month, but I'm sure Lily would have thought of it within a few hours," Remus reminded him.

A quick glance back confirmed that Lily already had her wand at the ready.

"Have fun!" Sirius called. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

James laughed. "You do realise that that threat sounds stupid coming from you?" he yelled back. "Of course I'm going to do something you wouldn't do – you're gay!"

"Goodnight, Peter," Remus said as they passed through his painting. Peter was leaning back in one of his chairs, relaxing at the end of the day.

"Goodnight, Remus, Sirius."

Sirius even managed a civil reply as they continued on their way.

Later that night, Sirius was lying awake, his head resting on Remus's chest. "Things are going to be okay, aren't they?" he asked quietly.

"Of course they are," Remus replied. "We're Marauders, we're always going to be all right."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"So, what do you think of it?" Teddy asked, angling his head so that his father, looking down from his library, could get a closer look at the latest addition to his outfit. The small, silver, crescent moon earring dangled from his ear.

"Very cool," Sirius commented. "I'll have to get me one of those."

"Just make sure the teachers doesn't see you wearing it," Remus warned. "Most of them aren't particularly fond of earrings on young men."

"I won't," Teddy promised, covering up his ear with slightly long and shaggy hair.

"Your final Christmas at Hogwart's," Remus said with a sad smile. "It won't be the same without you here next year."

Sirius nodded his agreement. "But, onto less depressing subjects, what prank have you decided on for your final Christmas here?"

"Ice-rink in the Great Hall," Teddy declared.

"A true classic," Sirius mused. "Done many times, and always worth a few laughs."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Remus asked. "You are a little…you know…"

"What your father is trying to say, is that you're a clumsy git," James called from across the room. He and Lily were on their way out to visit their second portraits, located in Harry's living room. They were both looking forward to seeing their three grandchildren again, even though James had only returned home for the holidays a few days before. Teddy had been invited of course, but had chosen to spend the holidays at school with his father.

"Definitely your mother's son," Sirius added to Teddy. "You don't want to spend your last Christmas here in the Hospital Wing."

"It's fine." Teddy waved their concerns away with a wave of his hand. "I've been practising transfiguring my shoes into skates. Watch this."

Teddy sat down on one of the beanbags and pulled out his wand. "Don't want to fall over," he said. Two swishes and a tap later and the shoes were transformed into ice skates.

"You'd better be careful of those blades," Remus warned. "They look sharp."

Unfortunately, the warning came too late. Teddy lowered his skates onto the opposite beanbag, neatly slicing through the fabric and spilling beans onto the floor.

"Too late," Sirius said with a laugh.

"We'll leave you to it," James called as he waved goodbye and stepped towards the frame leading to Harry's.

"Merry Christmas," Lily added as she too turned to leave.

"Are you sure there's nothing you can do to help from in there?" asked Teddy as he began pointing his wand at the spill of beans, all of which seemed determined to avoid his aim.

"Sorry," Sirius said, not sounding so in the least. "You should turn your shoes back though, you don't want to rip another one open."

Teddy was still trying to clean up the mess when the door to the Room of Requirement opened to reveal Fred Weasley.

"What have you been doing?" he asked as soon as he saw the mess. He kicked a few of the beans out of his way with a laugh.

"You could try and help," Teddy suggested.

Fred laughed again, but at least got his wand out to assist.

Fred Weasley had made history by being the first Weasley in living memory to be sorted into a house other than Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat had broken tradition to place him in Ravenclaw, much to the astonishment of the rest of the family. As if that wasn't enough to turn his father's hair grey, at the start of the previous term he'd been made a prefect.

Fred would normally have returned home for the holidays to join the rest of his family. However, he had persuaded his father to let him stay at school to 'study for his O.W.L.s' – which translated as getting up to mischief and keeping Teddy company.

"Have you finished your Defence essay already?" Remus asked Fred.

"Not even started it," Fred replied with a grin.

"Give the lad a break, Moony," Sirius told him. "It's the holidays."

"I'll get it done on time, Professor," Fred teased. It was a running joke amongst all the students in Hogwart's that Professor Moony was a far better teacher than any of the three Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers who had taken up the post since the Battle of Hogwart's. "Still don't see why you can't teach us properly," he added. "You can't be any worse than Binns."

"Thanks," Remus drawled. "Unfortunately, as a portrait, I can't do the full job of teaching."

"Sure you can!"

"No, I can't. I can't collect in and mark homework."

"Well, who cares about homework?" Teddy declared. "A teacher that can't set any would be brilliant."

"I heard Rathbone is leaving at the end of the year," Fred commented.

"I'm sure there will be numerous applicants for the post, especially now the curse has been lifted," Remus replied.

"I was in Dumbledore's office again last week," Teddy said, without looking up from his task.

"I know," Remus muttered. "Severus told me he'd seen you called in there again. What was it this time?"

"It wasn't my fault," Teddy insisted.

"It never is."

"There aren't many paintings of Heads in there," Teddy continued.

"Been moving them about?" Sirius asked.

"No. Just not many at all really. Not enough for all the Heads that have been here since the school began. It's been here for over a thousand years, after all."

"Not all Heads have portraits," Remus explained. "Only those who die in the post get one. Some Heads moved on to other jobs before they passed over. Occasionally an exception is made, like with Severus, and a portrait is added later – but, for the most part, only those who die on the job are here. Something to do with true devotion to the school."

"Did you hear the story about the Headmaster who died when he fell from the steps to the Owlry back in the eighteenth century?" Teddy asked, with a grin that Remus privately thought was wholly inappropriate for the subject matter. "It was the day before his wedding too."

"What a delightful subject for the Christmas holidays," Sirius commented sarcastically. "Can't think where you get this morbid fascination…"

Teddy laughed as he continued his story. "Apparently he tried to petition the Ministry to let them marry anyway. He wanted the bride to inherit his money – he was really rich. He was the one who provided all the gems for the House hourglasses."

"Obviously got more money than sense," Remus interrupted. "He would have been better off investing in some permanent heating charms."

Teddy shrugged as he gathered the last of the beans up and sat back on his beanbag once more. Fred flopped down beside him. "So, did they let them get married?"

Teddy gave him a scornful look. "Of course not, this is the Ministry we're talking about."

"Well, that's nice and depressing," Sirius said. "Any more miserable stories anyone wants to tell?"

"I hadn't finished," Teddy replied.

"Oh, do tell. Did the poor witch throw herself in front of a moving carriage or something?"

Teddy shook his head. "Did you know he doesn't have a portrait here?"

"Perhaps the school took pity on her," Remus suggested. "Handed his portrait into her care. It wouldn't help her move on or anything, but they might have done that."

Teddy shook his head again. "Nope, guess again."

Remus gave him a stern look. "You know you're dying to tell us, so come on, stop dragging it out."

"According to the witch with the runny nose down near the kitchens, he was painted out."

Three confused faces looked at him, wondering what exactly he meant.

"He was painted out of his original portrait," Teddy said again.

"I don't get it," Sirius said with a shrug of confusion.

Teddy rolled his eyes and stood up to pace as he explained. "Magical portraits are…well…magical."

"Really?" Sirius asked. "I didn't know that! Did you know that, Moony? That magical portraits are magical…gosh, you learn something new every day."

Teddy shot him a dirty look. "You know, you might like to listen to what your nephew has to say, since it concerns you."

Sirius's confusion only increased with that comment, but he settled back on the library sofa to listen.

"According to Marissa – the witch with the runny nose – if a wizard is painted out of his portrait, he'll be alive again, properly alive."

Remus smiled down at Teddy as he shook his head. "I'm sure she was just telling you some myth; I'll speak with her later about putting ideas into youngsters' heads."

"She was a student at the school when it happened," Teddy insisted. "She heard about it at the time. She said he got married after he came back. She said it was possible."

Remus approached at close to the edge of the painting as he could. "I know why you want this so badly," he said. "Believe me, I know. But, simply wanting it to be true doesn't make it so. If it were possible to cheat death as easily as all that, everyone would do it."

"It's not easy," Teddy amended. "You need an artist who can paint on a moving canvas, and who can paint a background that he can't see, as accurately as if he could. It's supposed to be really painful for the person in the painting too."

Remus continued to shake his head, but Sirius had got up from his seat and was searching through the shelves at the back of them. He returned to the front of the painting with a large book, his face ashen. "You said you wanted a library with everything in," he whispered. "Everything is right!"

Remus took the book from him and looked at the page Sirius had opened it at. As he read the page he felt his knees begin to buckle, and only Sirius's strong arm around his waist stopped him from falling to the ground.

"Only three wizards have ever survived it," Remus read aloud. "And one of those died within a few days of returning to the real world."

"But, it's possible," Teddy insisted.

"It's dangerous."

"More dangerous than fifteen year olds attempting animagus transformations?" Teddy countered. "Anyway, we have an advantage now. Modern technology means that we can take photos of the empty room, so that the artist doesn't have to guess the background he's filling in."

"You still need an artist," Sirius reminded him.

"And it's still very risky," Remus added as he continued to read. "If it goes wrong the magical properties of the painting are lost too soon and the occupant…"

"Dies." Sirius concluded.

"One wrong dab of the paintbrush and it's over. I'm not sure it's worth the risk," Remus said as he closed the book and turned to place it on the coffee table.

"I thought you'd like the idea," Teddy replied, his eyes downcast. "I thought maybe you'd think I was worth the risk."

With that the seventeen year old spun on his heel and rushed from the room. Fred followed at his heels.

"Damn," Remus muttered, rushing out of his painting to try to follow him through the corridors. Unfortunately, Teddy had learned long ago that if he wanted to avoid his father, all he had to do was get the Room of Requirement to turn into a room with no paintings and he was just stepping through the door when Remus called out to him.

Remus returned to his painting, where Sirius was waiting. He wasn't surprised to see that he had re-opened the book.

"I can see why the idea appeals to him," Sirius said as he studied the pages.

"So can I, but is it worth the risk?"

"I miss eating," Sirius replied. "Properly eating, I mean."

"I know."

"Watching the world go by is all well and good, but sometimes I just want to be a part of it again. Don't you feel like that?"

Remus sat down beside Sirius and curled up against him. "Don't you know yet? You're my world…"

"You could hug your son," Sirius whispered.

"Or I could die completely, and lose the chance to even speak with him."

"You can't say you're not tempted, even a little bit."

"No, I can't say that. Of course it's tempting."

"You could apply for the Defence post," Sirius suggested. "You won't have your furry little problem any more."

"I wouldn't say that," Remus muttered, poking Sirius with a finger. "You've been shedding on the bed again."

Sirius chuckled before turning serious once more. "I know you were disappointed when the Headmaster said you couldn't teach from a painting."

"I wasn't that keen on the idea anyway."

"Liar."

"Way too much paperwork and no way of getting paid."

"You love it, and you could get paid again if you were alive."

"The money is rubbish."

"I have more than enough money."

"You left it all to Harry."

"He's frugal, he'd loan me some of it back."

"It would be rude to ask."

"He'd offer."

"We wouldn't have anywhere to live."

"We'd live here, in the Defence teacher's quarters."

"Teachers don't usually have their spouses living with them here. Even if we were allowed to legally marry…which, since we're two blokes, we can't."

"Civil unions between same sex couples are legal in England now," Sirius told him. "If we did it the muggle way. Wizards are still a bit behind on that one."

"How do you know about that?"

"Common knowledge."

Remus snorted. "If you spend as much time gossiping as you do. Still don't think they'd let you live at the school though."

"Hagrid has a dog. Professor Lupin, and his faithful dog, Padfoot. No one would object to that."

"It's still risky," Remus whispered. "I could lose you all over again."

"But, if it works, look at what we get in return…another chance."

-o-xXx-o-

Teddy quickly realised that the way to talk his father around was to firstly convince Sirius of the merits of the idea. He knew that between the two of them, Remus didn't have a chance.

"I wouldn't risk it," Lily said after they had talked things through with the others. "We've had our time."

Severus nodded. "My duty is to the school; I have nothing worth returning to the real world for anyway."

James, on the other hand, had been interested in the idea, but obviously had no intention of leaving Lily on her own. They were happy to watch over Harry and his family from their paintings, and if on occasion they reached out a hand, only to find a barrier, they tried not to let it bother them.

Peter, who Remus had thought would be reluctant to risk his existence, was actually quite enthusiastic about the concept. Only the popularity of his bar and his new relationship with a shy young witch from the Astronomy Tower stopped him from going ahead with the idea.

In the end, it was only Remus and Sirius who were seriously considering the prospect.

-o-xXx-o-

"We could taste each other properly, like we used to," Sirius whispered as he licked at Remus's neck.

"I can taste you just fine," replied Remus, pulling Sirius back up for another kiss.

"We could have a proper house, not just a bedchamber and a library."

Remus flipped Sirius onto his back. "You're the one who wanted to spend eternity in bed," he reminded him.

Sirius shook his head. "I wanted to spend eternity with you."

Remus sighed and they kissed again. "We _are_ spending eternity together," he pointed out.

Sirius was picking at the cover when he spoke again. "When we were at school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life," he said quietly. "At least until the day we got together. Then I knew."

"Knew what?"

"I wanted to grow old with you," Sirius replied. He ran his hand along Remus's cheek, tracing his jaw, and running a thumb over his lower lip.

"Oh."

"It all went wrong so quickly, didn't it? We lost so much time."

"We have that time back now," Remus said. "As much time as we want."

"But, we're not living," Sirius whispered. "Remus, I want us to be married, or joined or whatever they call it in the muggle world. I want to see you teaching a class. I want to stand by your side at your son's wedding. I want to see you hold your grandchildren. I want a real life, instead of just watching others live theirs. I still want to grow old with you, Remus."

Remus didn't reply with words. He knew that Sirius would know his answer in every kiss and every touch that they shared.

-o-xXx-o-

"You ready?" Teddy asked from where he was stood in the Room of Requirement.

Remus looked down at him. "If this goes wrong…"

"I know," Teddy interrupted. "I love you too, Dad."

Remus turned to Sirius, who was getting ready to leave their library for the final time.

Through unspoken agreement, Remus and Sirius had never actually kissed in front of Teddy. His son knew about their relationship, and had done ever since he was old enough to understand why Sirius called himself his Uncle, but they had refrained from doing any more than occasionally touching – which half the time they didn't realise they were doing anyway – in front of him.

"It'll work," Sirius assured him as he squeezed his hand. This time touch wasn't enough; Remus threw his arms around Sirius's neck and captured his lips with his own. There was a desperation to the kiss; both knew it might well be their last.

As they pulled apart Sirius rested his forehead on Remus's. "Sorry, Teddy," Remus said as soon as he'd got his breath back.

"It's okay," Teddy replied with a smile. "I didn't think the two of you never actually kissed or anything."

Sirius chuckled. "Just didn't think you'd be too thrilled about seeing your Dad snogging another bloke."

"No kid likes to see a parent snogging anyone," Teddy pointed out with a laugh. "Even if he were kissing my mum, I'd probably still be embarrassed, because, you know, old folks don't do that sort of stuff."

Remus laughed and pushed Sirius back towards his own painting.

"Aren't you going to say 'I love you' or anything?" Teddy asked.

Remus and Sirius shook their heads simultaneously; they both knew there was no need to say the words. Then they caught Teddy's look of apparent disapproval. He exchanged a glance with Sirius. It wasn't like they hadn't said the words before. When they had first got together, and immediately after their reunion as portraits, they had said them all the time, they just hadn't felt the need to state the obvious for quite some time.

Sirius spoke first. "I…er…you know…erm…"

"Yeah…me too…you know…"

Teddy looked thoroughly disappointed in the pair of them. "Those have got to be the most pathetic declarations of love I've ever heard," he muttered, before turning back to the two artists he had found.

"See you around, Prongs!" Sirius called. "We'll be back before you know it."

"Good luck!" Lily called.

They all knew it wasn't going to be forever. The spell that had made them portraits when they died was, as far as they knew, still active. It was highly likely that if they succeeded in their quest, at the end of their – hopefully very long – lives they would return to the portrait world once more.

"Don't miss us too much," Sirius said as he threw himself onto his bed and settled himself against the headboard.

"We'll keep your bed warm," James called. "We'll give it lots of action…for a change."

Sirius flipped him the bird.

After that, Teddy asked the other portrait occupants to leave the Room of Requirement. Sirius and Remus needed to be as still as possible whilst the artists were working, and that would be hard enough to do, even without the usual Marauder camaraderie.

It had been decided by everyone that it would be best if the portraits were worked on at the same time. They had secured the promise of both artists that if anything went wrong with one of the paintings, they would say nothing out loud to the remaining occupant and simply make the same error again. Whatever happened, they were going to go through it together.

Remus had long ago perfected sitting still, much to the relief of the artist working on his painting. Sirius's artist, on the other hand, had a far more difficult task, due to the constant boundless energy that was his nature. "Mr Black, you must remain as motionless as possible," he advised yet again. Remus was tempted to say something to Sirius himself, but he knew that would only hinder his own artist. Thankfully, Teddy was at hand to order everyone – including Sirius – around.

Remus wasn't sure when the pain started. At first it was just a tingling sensation in his limbs, rather like the start of pins and needles, but gradually it became more and more intense, as though every part of his body was being pulled in a different direction.

The pulling continued until Remus was sure he could not stand it for another minute. But he had to, there was no way to stop the process once it had been started. He knew now why so few wizards had attempted this, and why so many attempts had ended in failure.

Then again, none of those wizards had Sirius Black waiting for him when it was all over. Gritting his teeth he braced himself against the pain.

-o-xXx-o-

"Moony."

Remus could hear Sirius whispering but he couldn't make out where the voice was coming from.

"Remus?"

Somewhere close by.

"Am I dead?" Remus murmured. "If not, please kill me now."

"The pain will die down soon," Sirius promised. "You'll see."

"Never thought anything would be worse than the werewolf transformation," Remus said.

Then there was a warm body close beside his own, and although the pain was still there, suddenly it wasn't quite as bad as before.

-o-xXx-o-

When Remus finally opened his eyes, it was to a familiar sight, but one he had not seen from this perspective in many years. Madam Pomfrey wasn't instantly visible, but she was sure to be around somewhere. The Hospital Wing was her domain, and she was never far from her patients.

Turning his head to the side, he could see Sirius stretched out on the neighbouring bed.

"Dad?"

Remus turned in the other direction and saw Teddy sitting in one of the chairs. "Teddy?"

"Who else?"

"Is Sirius all right?" he asked.

Teddy nodded. "He appeared first, a few minutes before you. He was at your side almost immediately you returned, but the pain was too much for him, he lost consciousness again almost right away."

Remus breathed a sigh of relief.

"What about you?" Teddy asked. "How do you feel?"

"Okay, I think." Remus struggled to sit up and felt the blood rushing to his head. It was a sensation he had forgotten since becoming a portrait.

"Take it easy," Teddy advised, jumping up to catch Remus as he started to fall from the bed. It was a few minutes before Remus realised that his son was touching him, that he could feel him. As soon as he did he pulled him into a tight hug, tears streaming down his face as he held him for the first time since he had been a baby.

"Mr Lupin, shouldn't you be in detention?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she bustled into the room.

"Detention?" Remus asked as Teddy pulled back and ducked his head sheepishly. "What have you done now?"

"What has he done?" Madam Pomfrey echoed. "Tampering with the paintings of yourself and Mr Black and risking your existences. Inviting men of dubious reputation into the school without permission."

"What?" Remus asked.

"The artists," Teddy clarified. "Most artists won't touch magical paintings, I had to really search to find one, let alone two."

"You can just consider yourself lucky that nothing went wrong," Madam Pomfrey scolded.

"It wasn't his fault," Remus interrupted. "Sirius and I made the decision to go through with it. It was our choice."

"I thought you had more sense," Madam Pomfrey muttered. "I always said that Mr Black was a bad influence on you."

"Is my reputation being maligned again?" Sirius asked from his own bed. "Can't a bloke get any sleep around here without being insulted?"

Remus wanted to leap out of his bed and throw himself at Sirius, and one look at the other young man was enough to know that he wanted to do likewise. It was just a shame that neither of them had enough energy to go through with it. Remus thought it was ironic that eighteen was supposed to be a young man's sexual peak, yet neither of them could even make it to the other's bed.

"Detention," Madam Pomfrey reminded Teddy, shooing him out of the room. "As for you two, I advise you get some more sleep while you can. There will be someone from the Ministry of Magic here to speak with you in the morning."

"About what?" Sirius asked.

"About what happens when wizards decide to return from the dead. I understand they have a lot of paperwork for the two of you."

Sirius groaned while Remus tried to stifle a smile.

"Sleep," Madam Pomfrey repeated.

"Where are our wands?" Remus asked as Madam Pomfrey stepped back towards her office.

"On the bedside table," Madam Pomfrey told him, pointing to the table in question. "Though I would advise against doing any magic before you're fully recovered."

Remus nodded, waited until she had left the room, then reached for his wand.

"You were told not to do any spells," Sirius reminded him.

"Just one little spell," Remus said.

"Just don't try apparating yet."

"I don't need to apparate to get where I want," Remus replied. A swish and a flick later and the bedside table's legs took on a life of their own and the furniture began to trot out of the way. A swish and a flick more and Remus's bed was moving into the place it had vacated.

"That was two spells," Sirius commented as Remus snuggled up beside him.

"Who's counting?" Remus murmured back.

"I am," Sirius whispered back. "I'm counting every single minute we have together, and this time I'm not going to waste a single one."

The End

A/N: I hope you have enjoyed this story, even if it wasn't filled with prank after prank from the Marauders. But come on, everyone does that... If you have enjoyed it, please considering checking out some of my other stories. And of course, reviews are always welcome. Louisa


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